Humanity's Most Valuable
by 67OtakuGirl24X3
Summary: About 20 years have passed since Eren and his friends first became soldiers. The walls had been reconquered, but the Titans have once again become a threat and the need for new soldiers has arisen. Second generation; contains OCs and non-canon events.
1. EXPLANATION: The story behind the story

My best friend and I make a habit of creating our own fun little AUs of most of the anime we watch. Some of them, we put much more thought into than others; "Calynn" and "Elle" are the non-serious OCs we typically manipulate as per the AU, but sometimes, we REALLY develop not only them, but their children. Attack on Titan is one of those anime we have done that with, since it's our ultimate favorite.

Now, we never usually do anything with these AUs of ours besides develop them in our heads and through personal RPs. However, one day in English class, I had to write a prompt about an uncle giving a special key to his niece or nephew and telling them, "You know what to do." My best friend and I had decided that Elle and Armin's children viewed Eren as an uncle, and so I decided to write the prompt about their second oldest child, a character I'd named Leah. That was the inspiration for the (shamefully slapdash) first chapter of this story, and I didn't have any intent of continuing it... Nonetheless, my teacher quite enjoyed it, and said that if I did write a continuation, he would love to read it. And so I decided that I would actually write out the full story of this AU of ours, using Leah as the protagonist.

The reason a lot of the story is written as if the reader knew nothing about Attack on Titan is because my teacher is following along, and I realize that it's kind of annoying for a fan. I'm sorry about that, if it is!

The characters Cecille, Fergus, Calynn, Elle, Mrs. Creed, Malcolm, Edward, Lexus, Janie, Dillon, Annette, Pat, Donovan, Leah, Fritz, Gisela, Ronald, Darin, Doriane, Tobias, Wolfram, Arthur, Alice, Kouki, and Naomi were created by either me, KiwiFruit07, or the both of us. The others belong to Hajime Isayama, though their stories have been slightly altered to fit the fic.

This story was purely written as a method of enjoyment for KiwiFruit07 and I and a result of our imaginations; please, no hate, and enjoy reading if you choose to!


	2. Chapter 1

_This_ _chapter is not meant to be taken quite as seriously as all of the ones after it; it only serves the purpose of providing a tiny bit of insight on the story's background, and wasn't originally intended to actually be the beginning._

* * *

Leah Arlert shuffled along after her uncle, literally quaking in her boots from a combination of terror, anxiety, and the cold chill surrounding her. She coughed into her gloved hands; the underground air was frigid and stagnant, putting further pressure on her uneasy breathing. The infamously hot-headed Eren Jaeger- an uncle to her- led her along, cussing under his breath as he stepped through the long-abandoned basement. Boxes and papers and assorted objects were strewn left and right, remaining from his last slapdash visit God-only-knew how many years ago.

"…Uncle Eren, why-"

"Quiet," Eren interrupted in the morose tone he had adapted ever since this unexplained mission had begun. Leah sighed quietly, pulling her scarf higher up her neck; she had been trying to weasel an explanation out of her uncle for hours, and found this opaque situation she had abruptly been pulled into was facilitated by simply going along with the nonsense. If she had known that this would be where she was going, she wouldn't have agreed to spending the day with Eren.

"Take it." Leah's eyes widened; she hadn't realized she had been zoning out until her uncle stopped in the middle of the room and spoke to her. _"Take it," _he had said. Except for his persistent shushes in response to Leah's questions, the only words she had heard him muster for hours came out as incomprehensible prattle. Yet, even these words lacked meaning; take what? The answer to her confusion came quickly: from his neck, Eren removed a key that had formerly been latent inside his shirt. "Take it," Eren repeated, holding the key out to his 11 year old niece, grasping it tightly in his hand. "You know what to do with it."

The moment the cold, silver metal pressed against Leah's palm, she _did _know. Stories about her world and memories from her childhood played through her mind like a silent film. Explanations resurfaced: Years ago, a race of man-eating giants called Titans annihilated a vast majority of the world's human population, leaving the global survival count at about 10,000. Those few that remained built three massive walls, and immigrated inside of them as an exodus from the Titans. Life was almost considered peaceful for a hundred years; though of course, humankind could not ignore the incorrigible impact the Titans had on their race, and trained their youths to fight against them. The need for these militants grew even stronger when the Titans breached the outer wall, depleting the population even further. Eren Jaeger, a teenager at the time, possessed powers that made him a paramount figure against the Titans; however, his actions were often arbitrary, for he had witnessed a Titan devour his mother. Eren's two most valuable accomplices were Mikasa Ackerman- his adopted sister and their generation's strongest soldier- and Armin Arlert, a childhood friend that had grown to be like a brother to Eren.

Years passed: battles were waged, lives were lost, vital information about the Titans was uncovered. Humankind never exactly _won _their war against the Titans, but life had at least been restored to a state of calm. Armin settled down with a girl he'd befriended during military training, and with her had Leah and her 4 siblings; Mikasa married a man from their legion; but Eren could never relax. He reprimanded the belief that humans could simply recover from the damage the Titans had inflicted, and he knew things about the Titans that made it impossible to think that mankind would be safe for long…

And now brings us to the present. Eren's predictions proved true, and the Titans were an immediate threat once more. The surviving former soldiers were whipping out their gear again, refreshing themselves on their skills that had ebbed slightly over the years. Some of the soldiers, however, had vowed to never return to the dangerous lives they had previously led: Leah's parents were examples of this. Her mother turned in her gear the moment she married Leah's father, and while her father still had his equipment on hand, he had never been a physically talented soldier anyway and now dedicated his life to science. In Eren Jaeger's case, though, there was no life to leave behind, no board to wipe clean: killing Titans _was _his life. He worked out every day as if he was back in training, and as a result didn't look a day over 20 despite being three years over 30. While it was true that many other former soldiers continued to keep themselves in shape, they did not do so as _vigorously _as Eren did, and it was more for their own pleasure; not in preparation for the eventual return of the Titans. Word around town was that poor Eren Jaeger, with no wife or children to keep him grounded, was gradually losing his mind.

…but Leah did not think so. She understood her uncle's dedication, perhaps even envied it to a degree. Ever since she was a little girl, she had always been fascinated with the stories he told about his intrepid soldier companions and the intense battles he'd fought in. Raised by two bookworms, storytelling was common in her household, but none could ever compare to Uncle Eren's. At least not to her. In fact… She could even go so far as to say that Eren's stories and devotion to what he had done inspired her to become a soldier herself.

Now, the aging yet shining key her uncle pressed into her gloved palm… The story behind it was one of her favorites. In short, when Eren was around Leah's age, his own father had left the key in his care before disappearing forever. The key unlocked the very room they were in now: the basement of Eren's destroyed childhood home. Years ago, the city had been overrun by Titans, and just trying to enter its gates resulted in massive amounts of casualties. This had been proven true when, back in Eren's teenage years, he and his squad had ventured to reach the very basement they stood in now. Deep within it were documents and science experiments that answered questions and revealed secrets that could easily have been responsible for humanity's biggest victories against the Titans. Confidential, valuable information that would mean trouble if in the wrong hands.

"Leah…. Listen to me," Eren pleaded, taking her smaller hands in his. For the first time in a decade, he actually looked his age. "You know what to do with this room. Keep it protect from people that'll use its information against us, and use it to your benefit. _Humanity's _benefit. The legion is practically _begging _for trainees now; the camps are gonna be full, not just half a cabin of kids. I understand if your parents won't let you. They hated it, and your sister hates it… If that's the case, I'll train you myself. Me and your Aunt Mikasa. But, if they _are _okay with it…" He squeezed her hands tighter. "I want you to enroll. I couldn't defeat the Titans in my lifetime… But I believe you can." A dark shadow crossed over his face, but hope flickered in his ageless teal eyes that would have won the heart of any woman, if he had allowed it.

Leah knew her uncle was speaking near madness. She knew what the camps were like, every adult she knew had recounted their own stories to her: she would have to spend a year in servitude on the nobles' farms before she could even attend the camp itself, where she would have to endure vigorous training. Upon graduation, she would have to face the Titans out in the field, the chances of her premature death higher than the chance of survival. …and yet… She couldn't help but succumb to her admiration for her formerly gallant, now desperate, uncle, and her own naïve childhood ambitions. Her mind was made up in an instant.

She crossed one arm behind her back, the other firmly over her heart, clapping her heels together: the infamous salute of their people's soldiers. The basement key was grasped in the fist that covered her heart. "…I'll do it," she vowed. Even without a blood relation, her resemblance to Eren Jaeger was uncanny as she added, "I'll kill all the Titans!"

And that was the beginning of how Leah Arlert became humanity's most valuable soldier.


	3. Chapter 2

Leah spent the night in her Uncle Eren's home. By the time they made the long trek back to their own town, the sun had long set, and Leah collapsed into an instantaneous sleep the moment she sat upon the sofa. Her parents were informed of these new arrangements via the recently re-invented telephone, to avoid any panic or concern from them. Following a brief breakfast and shower, she gave her uncle a kiss on the cheek and proceeded down the road to her house.

"I'm back from Uncle Eren's," Leah announced upon walking through the front door. She spoke under her breath, as she often did when at home: as much as she adored her family, she never truly felt comfortable expressing herself around them. She was the type of person that never spoke more than was necessary, and the only person she really spoke in detail to was her Aunt Mikasa, Eren's sister and the person after whom she, Leah _Mikasa _Arlert, was named. Otherwise, she had to be caught in the right mood to answer in more than a sentence or two. She could most simply be described as "distant" and "quiet."

Nonetheless, she _did _love her family immensely, and as much as she preferred peace and quiet, she could never be bored in the Arlert household. There was always something going on when she had a constantly busy professional researcher for a father; a doting yet comical housewife for a mother; a sweet-natured 14-year-old sister named Annette with half the town's young men positively smitten with her, though she was currently enrolled in the training camps (the only thing keeping her from dropping out was her optimistic attitude); an irritable 10-year-old brother named Fritz, whom was born with a disease that probably had had a name back before the Titans destroyed humanity, and caused him to lack the ability to stand on his legs; a rambunctious 6-year-old-brother named Tobias with unlimited energy; and a well-behaved 4-year-old brother named Wolfram, who had the physique of a 2-year-old and mental capacity of a 7-year-old. Each one of these family members greeted Leah once as she shuffled up the stairs on the way to her room.

"…how am I going to do this," she whispered to herself, falling back onto her bed. She was going to obey her uncle's request; there was not a single doubt about that in her mind. The only issue was how she was going to go about announcing the choice to her family. When Annette decided she'd try her hand at training a little less than 2 years ago, the only response she received was shock, and hesitant respect for her decision. For a moment, Leah thought back on this and felt reassured; after a minute more of thought, however, it then dawned on her _why _her parents hadn't protested. Although Annette wasn't precisely a _weakling, _she was certainly a far cry from soldier material. Yes, she had a heart of gold, but anyone (except for her, it seemed) could plainly see that that heart would be better put to use helping out around the house or working at an orphanage, instead of killing gigantic man-eating monsters. Her parents realized this, and knew that before she graduated, Annette would acknowledge it herself, and come home where she belonged.

…now the question was, how would they react to their younger daughter, who they knew would never quit at anything she set out to do, attending the training camp not just for the experience, but with the full intent of graduating and becoming a soldier, at an entire year younger than when their eldest daughter had enrolled? Leah groaned, digging her fingers through her waveless blonde hair. What would she do if her parents said no? Run away? If it really came down to it, she would do **whatever **it took.

Of course, her parents' uncertain approval was not the only dilemma…

Though Mikasa was the only person Leah would truly _open up _to, there were two people whom she was exceptionally thoughtful towards. One of them was her cousin Donovan: the son of her Aunt Calynn (the elder sister of her mother) and her Uncle Levi. One year Leah's senior, Donovan had been enrolled in the camps since he was 10 years old, by his own free will. To explain his reasoning as tritely as possible, his father had been considered the strongest soldier of all time- even better, it's been said, than Mikasa Ackerman (though that really was only fair, seeing as Levi had about 15 years on the girl)- and though his mother was not as vastly talented, she _was _at least a limitlessly dedicated soldier. His elder sister (_brother, _as the anything-but-feminine 'girl' would tell anyone who would listen), Dillon, was already looking to be following directly in their father's famous footsteps, 5 years into her- no, _his- _training. Most people would view Donovan as competition, but Leah was only relieved that she would be in camp with him. An example to follow, a familiar face, even a sparring partner… These were all good things as far as she was concerned. What was most important, ultimately, was just that she would not have to leave him behind.

However, the one other person she felt more considerate about…. _He _would have to be left behind, and that was her brother Fritz. It was the latent, though commonly known, family secret that Elle Arlert (Leah's mother) felt she was to blame for Fritz's permanent handicap. She had named him after two very important people in his parents' lives, that died very tragic deaths: Fritz was the name of Armin's grandfather that had taken him in as a child; his middle name, Marco, was after…. …well. Marco Bodt will be introduced soon enough. It seemed to Elle that these names were weighted with a heavy curse of misfortune. Superstitious or not, the guilt chilled her to the bone every time she saw her son struggle to move about.

Consequently, she, along with her husband, doted upon Fritz a tad more than any of their other kids. While many kids would milk up such attention, fiery-tempered Fritz despised it. He wished to be treated equally with his other siblings, not like something that deserved to be pitied. Not like a _cripple. _Like Leah, he distanced himself from the family, though in a perhaps more negative way: Leah at least enjoyed having decent relationships with her parents and siblings, yet Fritz detested the fact that he cared about them and vice versa. If he had his way, he'd cut out his empathy and live a life completely indifferent to his family members… The only sibling he openly showed affection toward was little Wolfram, whom he'd read to every day as if their lives depended on it. It could be said that he also displayed fondness of Leah, but in his own unique way, and that was that she was the one he'd immediately come to whenever he was irritated about something and needed to speak his mind.

…with Leah away, he'd have to screw the cork which already kept his emotions bottled up even tighter.

Leah's mind had been made up years ago, yet she still lay in bed struggling with the pros and cons of her decision until she fell into an uneasy sleep. She slept straight through lunch and awoke only when her nose picked up the pleasant aroma of dinner cooking downstairs. Even as she heaved herself out of bed and practically stumbled down the stairs, her restless mind continued to contemplate how she was going to make her announcement, as if she had been plotting methods in her dreams.

Her family had already gathered around the table by the time she reached the dining room. "Ah, Leah, I was just about to send somebody to get you…" her mother greeted brightly, setting a basket of freshly baked rolls on the table. "I was going to wake you for lunch, too, but you were out cold."

"Mm, I'm tired…Not too hungry either," Leah answered simply, smoothing out her skirt as she took her seat.

"Tired enough to sleep for 7 hours in the middle of the day? What did Eren _do _to you," her father mused with a casual smile. Leah's body tensed; sometimes she got the feeling that her father, with an IQ so high it was almost inhuman, could see right through people. She allowed apathy to glaze over her expression, and gazed silently down at her plate in response. Fortunately for her, her family was so used to her quiet personality that nobody even questioned her lack of reply. It seemed to be a rhetorical question, anyway.

The Arlert family settled around the table as Elle set a steaming pot in its center, divvying out ladlefuls of stew to her husband and children once she was seated herself. "This smells _delicious, _darling," Armin complimented, pressing a loving kiss to her cheek.

_"Ew, _Daddy!" Tobias shrieked from the other side of the table, kicking his feet as his mother reached for his empty bowl. She paused before emptying the soup ladle's current contents into it, grinning teasingly.

"Well if we're being so _ew, _I suppose you won't want any of Mommy's stew…"

A look of horror crossed the young boy's rosy face. "No, no! I want stew! I won't call you ew no more, I _promise," _he insisted in a chuckled, shaking her head fondly and pouring her son his stew. Leah felt herself smiling ever-so-slightly. Although he tended to be quite a brat, it was undeniable that Tobias was impossible to not love. He brought life to each day, to say the least. …and Leah wouldn't see him again for at least a month, most likely more, when she left for the camps. The small smile faded from her face.

Everything was silent for the next few minutes as the family quietly enjoyed their meals. "Mm, I almost forgot!" Elle suddenly exclaimed with her mouth half full. Swallowing then dabbing her lips with a napkin with one hand, she reached the other in the breast pocket of her blouse and removed a folded piece of paper. "We got a letter from Annette."

"Ann-Ann!" Wolfram and Tobias squealed in unison, Tobias nearly knocking over his bowl in excitement. "What's it say?!" Tobias demanded.

"I'm not sure, myself. I wanted us to read it together," Elle answered with a smile as she unfolded the letter. She cleared her throat before reading, "_'Dear Everyone, Today, we viewed our first mission. We didn't actually fight or anything: they say they won't send trainees out until after they've graduated. We only watched some squads from the Stationary Guard and Scouting Legion perform a mission themselves… …it was awful. Absolutely, horrifyingly awful. I watched people fall and break their bones, maneuver right into Titans' paths and get EATEN, people rushing to the infirmary with missing limbs… So many other things that make me queasy just thinking about. You may have noticed that I didn't ask how everyone was doing, as I usually do at the start of my letters; well, that's because I'm going to see for myself, soon. I'm coming home. For good. I came, I saw, and I was mentally scarred for life. I may be called a quitter, but… I don't want this family to lose any more children. Love, Annette.'"_

The whole family sat in a silence that seemed immensely quieter than the last one, where everyone had simply been enjoying their meal. The atmosphere was different entirely from just a few moments ago.

Fritz was the first to speak up. "What did she mean by that last part? 'I don't want this family to lose any more children…' What children have we-"

"It's nothing, Fritz," Armin interjected immediately. Leah's eyes widened slightly. Their father _never _avoided a question; he always thought up some faulty explanation on the spot when needed, such as when Tobias had asked what it meant when a boy at the market told Annette she was "too hot to be 14." For him to respond so defensively, and without any prepared excuse, was rather alarming. …come to think of it, she had felt a twinge in her own heart, at that last line of the letter. Something told her that she knew exactly what Annette was referring to: a distant memory tugging at the back of her head, so weak that she was able to overlook its feeble persistence in a matter of seconds.

Elle forced a convincing smile that only Leah and Armin were able to see past and label as fake. "I think what we should be focusing on is that Annette's coming home!" she exclaimed. "Our family's going to be whole again."

"Not quite."

All eyes turned to Leah as she whispered those two words. She tensed slightly. It seemed that her mouth was one step ahead of her mind, and decided to take this opportunity to make her little announcement. It was the perfect chance, wasn't it? Perhaps a little more painful than another alternative, but it fit perfectly with the topic at hand. It was best to get it over with quickly, she decided. She straightened herself up and took a deep breath. "I want to go to the camps."

A silence entirely new in comparison to the last couple shrouded the family. This one was tense, shocked, dreadful. "…Eren told you he sees potential in you, didn't he," Armin inferred quietly, doing his best to meet his daughter's eye but functioning sluggishly. Leah gave a small nod to her head. "That you remind him of Mikasa, and that he believes you can accomplish what he never did." _Nod. _"And that's not a new necklace around your neck… It's the key to his basement, isn't it." Leah hesitated, and then nodded once more.

Edgy silence buzzed throughout the room for a little while longer. Nobody knew where to look; Leah? Each other? Their plates? Then suddenly, Elle jumped to her feet, toppling her chair in the process. She reached over the table, knocking over the bread basket, and grabbed her daughter by the wrists. "Was that the _only _thing that happened when you went with him? He gave you the key and convinced you to join the Scouting Legion? He didn't inject you with anything, did he? _Did he?! _Jesus Christ, I _knew _there was something wrong with that man, I _knew _he'd lost his mind!" she shrieked madly, her eyes wide and raving in a manor much unlike anything Leah had ever seen of her.

"I- Mom, what are you _talking _about?" Leah gasped, taken aback more than she could ever recall. Her mother's grip tightened around her wrists.

"Those powers of his aren't _natural, _Leah Mikasa Arlert!" she screamed. _"Now answer me!"_

"He didn't inject me with anything! You aren't even making any sense!" Leah yElled right back. She faintly took note of Wolfram whimpering and sliding beneath the table in his chair.

"Calm down, BOTH of you!" Armin shouted, grabbing his wife by the shoulders and prying her off of their youngest daughter. He held her close to him until her heavy breathing normalized, and her intense shaking lessened. "It may sound like your mother is spurting raving nonsense, but she's concerned for a legitimate reason. I'll explain when the time is right- soon, I expect it to be. But not now. There is, though, one thing she mentioned that I'd like to know right this instant… Did Eren convince you to join the Scouting Legion, yesterday?"

Leah paused for a moment, searching for the truthful answer. Just before her father began to assume he would not be getting a response out of her, she replied, "…no. I've thought about joining since I was much younger. The only thing Uncle Eren convinced me of was to not wait any longer."

"…so you're just gonna up and leave for the camps?" Leah's cool composure finally reached its breaking point when she identified that faint voice as Fritz's. She turned to him, a look of uncharacteristic empathy on her face.

"…I'll write constantly, just as Annette did. And I'll attempt to visit whenever they allow, which is usually monthly-"

"Whoa, wait, you think I'm mad because I'll _miss you?" _

Leah opened and closed her mouth like a beached fish as Fritz cut her off so bitterly. Yes, that _was _what she thought; it seemed the natural thing to assume of a little brother with whom she shared such a close bond. "I know you'll visit and all that crap, has Annette _not _spent the past year or two in the same situation? I'm _mad _because you get to go. Mom had her little freak-out session, Dad was stunned for a sec, but they're not protesting otherwise, are they? We know them well enough to know that they're gonna respect your decision. But would _I _be allowed to? _No. _I'm 10 years old, I could go if I wanted; Donovan enrolled when he was this age. But I haven't even bothered bringing it up, 'cause what's the point? Even if Mom and Dad let me go, it's not like they'd let some _cripple _in the Scouting Legion. No matter how badly I wanna destroy every last one of those freaking Titans."

Now, Fritz was prone to snappy, wordy rants when provoked far enough. However, something about this one was… Different. The way he spoke about his parents as if they weren't in the room, and expressed himself so vividly… It left everyone in the room quite shaken. "…Fritz, honey, we-"

"I don't want to hear it," he cut his mother off. He shoved himself irately away from the table, grabbing his crutches from where they were propped against the wall and stormed off as quickly as he could swing himself, leaving half his dinner untouched as he disappeared into his bedroom. Tears leaked from his eyes behind his glasses, but nobody saw that. Wolfram burst into tears himself and Elle hastened to comfort the small boy.

"…I'll go talk to Fritz. But, he was right about at least one thing: your mother and I respect your decisions, and you completely have our permission to leave. …I know you'll make an excEllent soldier, Leah," Armin murmured calmly, slowly backing away from the table. He clapped his heels together and crossed his heart in salute; Leah was too dazed to return it, and collapsed into her chair. Armin cast a sympathetic gaze her way. "We have a _lot _to discuss."


	4. Chapter 3

Fritz didn't leave his room until breakfast the following morning. Armin assured the family, however, that all was well: he just required some alone time. Leah and her parents did their best to sleep well that night: the following morning would be fast-moving and busy.

"Rise and shine, Leah. We have a lot to do," Elle announced, gently shaking her daughter awake. Leah bolted upright in bed, gasping sharply. Had she slept in? How unlike her… Her hours of tossing and turning that night were most likely to blame. "Your Uncle Eren is on his way over. He's going to talk to you a little bit… …and, I'm going to apologize for basically calling him a loon last night."

After stretching, Leah raised an eyebrow at her mother, conveying the message, "Why? He doesn't even know you did." Elle chuckled almost guiltily, reading her daughter perfectly. "When I called to invite him over, I explained everything that happened last night. My little freak out, in full detail… From what I could clearly remember, at least."

"You're too honest with people," Leah mumbled, throwing back her covers and slipping out of bed.

"But that's something people love about me, right?" Elle joked. Leah flashed her mother a slight smile- quite an accomplishment, coming from Leah- and proceeded to strip out of her nightgown and into her clothes for the day.

By the time she had freshened up and made her way downstairs, Eren Jaeger had already arrived, sitting on their living room sofa with Tobias bouncing excitedly in his lap. It was no secret that Tobias was Eren's favorite of the Arlert kids, even before Leah; after all, he had been named after Eren in the same way Leah had been named after Mikasa. Tobias Eren Arlert. "…Uncle Eren," Leah uttered to catch his attention. His gaze turned up, and a new grin stretched across his already happy face.

"Well there she is, the lady of the hour," he breathed over-dramatically. Leah only stared at him momentarily as if to tell him how strange he was, and then silently took a seat in the armchair across from him. "Toby, my boy, can you go play somewhere else? I gotta talk to your sis." Tobias pouted and gave a little whine, but didn't protest otherwise. He hopped off of his non-biological uncle's lap and went off to find someplace else to cause mischief.

"…Mom said you were going to talk to me," Leah murmured after a brief moment of inactivity. Eren gave a slight nod to his head, adjusting his sitting position.

"Well, I thought about that, and I realized… I don't really have much to say. The decision's set in stone, right? You're joining the Scouting Legion?"

Leah nodded firmly. "Even if I'm accepted into the Military Police." The Military Police was only an option to the trainees that graduated in the top 10 ranks, and although it was quite the honor to have done so well, most people detested the Military Police. They were stereotyped as having haughty, self-serving personalities, with a massively soiled reputation. While the Stationary Guard and Scouting Legion defended against the Titans, doing actual service for humanity, the Military Police only served the king and lounged in the luxury of his protection. It was the path Jean Kirschstein- Mikasa's husband- had determinedly pursued until a tragic reality check forced a change of heart upon him. Nowadays, however, the actions of the next generation of MPs _were _shaping up.

"Good to hear… I'm proud of you, Leah," Eren replied, nodding slowly. "I would give you advice, but… What's there to say? Either you've been told it before, or you'll figure it out on your own."

"….tell me about your powers," Leah suggested quietly.

Eren's grin softened, giving off a conflicting vibe of humbleness and sarcasm. "Ellie did tell me she let something slip last night… I'd be glad to share."

Leah was already aware of _what _Eren's powers were: a majority of humanity did, in fact. During his time as a soldier, mankind looked upon Eren as a beacon of hope, because he possessed the mysterious ability to transform into a Titan himself. In retrospect, he was immortal: if he lost a limb, it would regenerate just like a Titan's would, and if he was injured but had a clear ambition in mind, he would become a Titan. Eren was not the only Titan-shifter in the world; however, it seemed that he was the only one with good intentions. A trio of other Titan-shifters that had infiltrated the Scouting Legion and Military Police were, in fact, the cause of a vast majority of Eren's generation's wars against the Titans. Leah had yearned to see her uncle demonstrate the transformation ever since she was a little girl. But the question was: where did these abilities originate?

"One of the things my father worked on back in that basement, Leah, was a very complicated, very… _dangerous _serum," Eren began. Leah absently fingered the key around her neck as he said this. "After my mother had died, he disappeared into that basement for hours, sometimes _days, _on end. Until one day, when I was about your age… He took me out to the forest, dragging me along, not saying a word, giving no explanation whatsoever."

_You mean like what you did to me just a couple days ago? _Leah wanted to say. But she remained silent, and continued to listen attentively. Eren's demeanor changed, here; his grin was completely gone, his eyebrows were furrowed, he wasn't meeting Leah's eye. It seemed painful to recount this memory. "…he whipped out this, _needle… _A syringe, filled with this disturbingly green liquid… I was only a kid, Leah. Already scarred from losing my mother, and knowing Mikasa and your father lost both of _their _parents, and now my father was acting like some… Raving lunatic, trying to drive a needle into his only son's arm. I blacked out after that, but whatever he had created… It gave me my abilities that helped to save humanity." Eren paused, here. …no, not paused, Leah soon realized. Stopped altogether. He stared silently at the floor, recovering from the pain of the horrifying memory while Leah waited with gradually decreasing patience for him to continue.

"…is that all?" Leah urged after more than a full minute. Eren raised his eyes from the floor, looking more like himself. He flashed a half-sized apologetic smile.

"Sorry, kid. Your dad said I can't tell you anymore than that."

The normally composed, quiet Leah felt herself start to twitch with irritation. "That wasn't anything at _all," _she practically hissed. _What was in that serum? Why hasn't humanity used it on more people than just you? Had he only made enough for one dosage? Does anyone possess the knowledge to recreate it?_

Eren bit his lip, understanding Leah's frustration. It was like she had finally picked the lock to a door behind which she knew the basis of its contents, only to have it open no more than a crack. "…well, I guess I could tell you-"

"_Eren," _Armin interrupted firmly, stepping in at a perfectly convenient time. "I told you to keep everything but that confidential."

"But what use could I possibly make of _that _information, Daddy?" Leah snapped, speaking at a regular volume with her eyebrows furrowed and her mouth taut.

Armin only smiled at her. "You can figure that out on your own. I know you're smart enough." His smile lessened a bit and he turned to Eren. "We have breakfast left over, if you'd like a bite to eat. Even if not, please, stay for a while, chat with us. And Leah," he returned his gaze to his daughter, "I want you to go to your Aunt Mikasa's. Look for Uncle Jean… He's expecting you. Your mother is wrapping up some bread for you to take and eat on the way." His affectionate smile was restored when he noticed Leah's usually expressionless semblance betray a look of bafflement. "We told you today would be very busy."

Regaining her apathetic demeanor, Leah gave a partial nod to her head, stood, and gave cheek-kisses to both her uncle and her father. She received the bread from her mother in the kitchen, gave _her _a peck on the cheek, and was on her way out the door without a word of protest or questioning. The night prior, she and her parents had decided that if things went as planned, she would be heading off to the camps within the next day or two. So, her uncle probably had something to give or tell her before she left, and it was best to get everything done in one day.

_Knock-knock. _Leah waited patiently on the porch, munching on her bread, until Jean Kirschstein greeted her in the doorway moments later. He was wearing a blank expression, which was unusual for the typically pompous, bitter, yet charismatic man. "Leah… Your dad told me you were coming. Perfect timing; I was _just _heading out."

"…we're going somewhere?" Leah asked simply, her face betraying no looks of confusion or questioning. Jean nodded and stepped out of the house, waving his hand and flashing a smile over his shoulder (to Mikasa, Leah assumed) before closing the door behind them. It was then that Leah realized her uncle was not empty handed: he grasped a simple bouquet of white flowers in one hand. Still, she kept silent and just followed after him; surely, the answers to any questions she had would come in time, so there was no point in wasting her breath.

They walked in silence, which really was nothing new between the two of them. Jean had never been fond of children, and thus never had any of his own; the only kids he had an emphasized soft spot for were his neighbor's daughter, who had been orphaned a couple years ago when she was 15 and thus often came to Jean and Mikasa for support, and little Wolfram, whom had been named after Jean in the same way Tobias was named after Eren and Leah was named after Mikasa (obviously, their parents practiced a pattern of honoring their friends by making their names their children's _middle_ names). So, besides the fact that she was the child of two of his best friends, he had no special bond with Leah. In fact, she slightly unnerved him: she reminded him much too strongly of a younger version of his wife, and as opposed to being heartwarming, he found that this connection made him quite uncomfortable. He never really knew how to deal with this second Arlert daughter.

"Ah, good morning, Mr. Kirschstein-! Leah-!" someone called as they approached the perimeter of the wall. Jean's head immediately snapped toward the source of the voice, glad for a distraction from this awful silence, while Leah only glanced over with her eyes. What she saw was a tall, lanky, sandy-haired, droopy-yet-lively-eyed man of about 20, wearing the uniform of the Stationary Guard.

"Lexus! You workin' hard, or hardly workin'?" Jean called in response, grinning and coming to a halt so he could speak to the young man that had greeted them. Leah sighed silently, hesitantly stopping behind her uncle.

"Um, working hard _at _hardly working, I guess!" Lexus Habernathy answered with a sheepish sort of grin. Lexus and the Arlerts went way back: he had been a toddler when Leah's mother first graduated into the Stationary Guard herself and greatly admired the new soldier, thinking she was simply the most amazing thing and vowing to be just as cool as her one day. It could be said that that little boy alone was the paramount reason Elle hadn't quit years earlier than she did. The only Arlert child that really got to form a bond with him, though, was Annette, because Leah had been just a baby when Lexus lost his mother to illness and enrolled himself in the training camps for a few years. He was a humble air-head, but was limitlessly kind and completely adored by Elle and Annette.

He and Jean chatted for a couple minutes, putting the anti-social Leah a bit on edge. "We were just going to pay a… special visit to someone, before Leah here heads off to the camps," Leah heard Jean explain at one point. Lexus's airy eyes widened and turned to the blonde girl.

"What? You're going to the camps…?" he asked incredulously. Leah only nodded in response, hardly meeting his eye.

"I guess the Arlerts are trading out one daughter for another," Jean joked with a grin, which faded quickly when he realized that may not have been funny. Lexus, however, was too dumbfounded to catch onto the cruel humor.

"…what, do you mean, sir?" he asked in bewilderment.

Jean raised his eyebrows, tilting his head slightly. "You mean you don't know? Annette's quitting the camps."

For a couple seconds, Lexus's expression remained baffled; when the meaning of Jean's words finally registered in his brain, his face lit up, his eyes widening, his jaw dropping, and his shoulders going from hunched to straight back. "Wait! You mean… Annette's coming home-?!"

"Yup," Jean answered simply with a nod, shifting his flower bouquet to his other hand. "I figured you would have known, since she's your girlfriend and all…"

A smirk grew on the man's face as Lexus's face drained of all color, a red blush burning onto his cheeks in replacement. He held his hands up as if protecting himself from an assault. "Sh-she isn't my _girlfriend! _She's just a good friend that I've known for forever…"

"Jesus, kid, I'm just pulling your leg. Don't have a heart attack." Jean laughed and ruffled his already messy hair, ignoring the fact that Leah was glaring daggers into his back. "Well, we gotta get going… Nice seeing you, Lexus." Lexus slowly dropped his hands and opened his mouth to speak, but nothing more than a subtle whimper came out. He gave Jean and Leah a clumsy salute before they continued on their way.

"…where are we?"

It was the first time either of them had spoken since Jean's brief chat with Lexus back at the wall. They had been walking for a good while now, cutting through a town or two before coming to one of the bigger grain farms that fed a large portion of the population. Leah had never been to this section of the walls; her family grew their own food and got everything else from the markets. Still, she stayed completely silent as her uncle led her along the edge of the fields. It was beginning to seem like they were ambling along an endless sea of wheat until finally, a good 10 minutes later, they came to its north-most perimeter. The very last row of towering wheat stopped at the very end of the field itself; not an inch of soil was wasted. Precisely where the fields ended, a forest began. It was tiny- likely less than an acre- and lacking in any sounds of life, but it was vibrant and smElled deliciously of fresh greenery. The foot of this forest was where the pair came to a halt, and Leah finally spoke up.

Instead of answering directly, Jean replied with, "Come with me."

They ventured a little further into the forest until they came to what could almost be called a clearing, but was more accurately described as a little area where very few plants were growing. Whereas trees, flowers, weeds, and shrubs grew throughout of the woods, this space consisted of nothing but grass and slabs of stone. It gave off an air of foreboding, not necessarily because the area was so empty, but more so because something just felt… Off. The stones were too smooth, too neatly arranged… As Leah scrutinized them closer, she came to a crushing realization that knocked her immediately off balance:

They were graves.

"Leah… Have your parents told you about Marco Bodt?" Jean asked quietly. He used a gently, fatherly tone that made Leah have to double check to make sure it was still Jean Kirschstein standing beside her.

"…yes," she murmured. Just as she began to mentally recount the stories her mother had told her, Jean told them out loud as if she had answered with "no."

"We live in a pretty shitty world, but sometimes, there are really great people out there. Marco… was one of those people. He was smart, friendly, real nice, and a huge optimist. Not even in an obnoxious, happy-go-lucky way; nah, he could lift anyone's spirits, even the most far gone. …I was one of those people." Jean gazed down at the white flowers in his hand, a dreamy sort of haze glazing over his eyes. "The guy was my best friend. We both strived for the Military Police: me 'cause I was a spineless, no-good pompous asshole that just wanted the king's protection, Marco, 'cause he strived to be the best at what he did. We were gonna make it, too… We both graduated in the top 10. We were going places, the two of us… 'Specially Marco. In the hell we live in, love and romance was an unthinkable thing, but Marco? He found it. Found it with-"

"My mother," Leah finished for him. Jean glanced up and her and nodded.

"This'll probably gross you out, but man, were those two a pair. At first, Ellie was just a girl with a silly little crush on Marco, but when he decided to give her a chance, the two of them fell head-over-heels. Totally in love, inseparable and endlessly happy… …I hated it. They were so _gushy, _so into each other, it was repulsive. …plus, I guess I was kinda jealous. That annoying little girl was stealing my best friend away from me.

"Well, I guess I ended up getting what I wanted. Shortly after graduation, Marco broke up with your mother: told her he knew she belonged with someone else."

"My dad," Leah whispered. Jean heard her and nodded.

"She was crushed, but she understood… The two of them were buddies to begin with, so they pretty much rekindled..." His expression darkened drastically here. "…few days later, we graduates were sent out on our first mission. It was… it was _bad. _Real bad. A lots of people never returned, and one of them was Marco. Nobody even…. Saw how he died… We're left to assume he suffered, scared and alone, until he died."

As familiar as she was with this story, Leah still felt something icy clench her heart as Jean uttered these words. "His death… really messed up a lot of us. He was my _best friend, _my constant source of motivation… And your mother was still in love with him. She tried to kill herself afterwards, y'know…" Leah froze, her eyes widening. _That _part, she did not know… She listened a little more intently. "I'm not gonna lie, Leah, I'd always hated your mom. She just… annoyed me. But when I saw her up on that wall, crying and about to jump, I was the one that pulled her back and held her till she stopped screaming. We got on a _lot _better, from that point on. For Marco.

"I guess I should get to my actual point," Jean continued after a short pause. "I was the one that discovered Marco's corpse. But his body isn't here: nobody's is. Everybody that died on that mission, and still had a body to show for it… was burned to ashes. But, a couple years later, we set up this graveyard to honor all those young new soldiers that never even got the chance to leave the walls, and never received a proper burial.

"Marco's death was… limitlessly traumatic, but not all of its effects were _bad, _per se. It turned your mom and I into friends and allies, made me choose the Scouting Legion and actually fight those damned Titans, and gave some of us… especially me… the motivation to live. Call it cliché, but I've always believed that Marco's up there watching over us. A lot of the close calls I've had… I thank Marco for getting me out of them alive. As much as your mom beats herself up over 'cursing' your brother, she told me once that she's _glad _his name is Fritz Marco. 'Cause she thinks the only reason he didn't die as a baby was because Marco looked down from heaven, saw that little boy that the woman he loved named in his honor, and vowed to protect him."

"…you're right. That is cliché," Leah said after a long, deep silence. Jean only laughed, lightly ruffling her hair.

"Your mom knew I was stopping by his grave today. She told me to bring you along, 'cause she believes that if you show dear ol' Marco Bodt your respect, he's gonna loan some of his protection to you."

All Leah could think of was how ridiculous that was, and how her mother could quite possibly be a loon; there was no such thing as angels, no such thing as life after death. …still… The idea was undeniably comforting. So, as Jean held out the bouquet of flowers, she took it, kneeled down, and placed it atop the stone slab that read _Marco Bodt. _

"…I never got to meet you, but… I've heard nice things about you. I'm sure we would have gotten along." This was an outright lie; it was rare to Leah to get along with _anyone. _Still, speaking her mind had never really been in her league, so speaking at all was impressive by her standards. "If it's true that you watch over my mother, your best friend, and my brother, then… Please, watch over me as well," she whispered. Closing her eyes, she gently placed the flowers atop the stone slab.

"She's a bit creepy, but don't mind her, Mar. She's a good kid," Jean insisted, smiling as if it was the most casual thing in the world to vocalize toward the sky and converse with some spirit that may or may not be looking down on him.

They stood in silence for a few more moments, lost in loose, absent thoughts until Jean said, "Come on, Leah… Let's go home." He gripped her shoulder and gave her an affectionate smile- two gestures that were formerly unknown between the pair- before leading her back toward the field and eventually home.

Leah's family was in a state of mild celebration when she returned to her house after a small lunch with Jean and Mikasa. She walked in on laughing, casual chatter, and an overall happy atmosphere. The reason for this was revealed when she entered the living room: seated on the middle cushion of the sofa with Wolfram on her lap and the rest of the family gathered around her, was Annette.

_"Leah!" _From the sound of it, Annette had paused after wrapping up some story, so her calling of Leah's name seemed perfectly on cue. Leah shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other as all smiling eyes in the room (including Eren Jaeger's, since he had not yet left) turned to her. Her intent had been to retire to her bedroom until her parents gave her further instruction…

"…hi, Annette. Welcome home."

She tensed as Annette swept over to her and enveloped her in a sisterly embrace. Annette seemed oblivious to the younger girl's discomfort, continuing to hold her even as she stood statue-stiff; however, after a few seconds ticked by, Leah couldn't help but warm up to the hug and wrapped her arms around her sister in return. It wasn't as if she had anything against Annette… Although she was lacking in intEllectual and athletic capacity, she did have a good head on her shoulders guided by her golden heart, and Leah loved her. She hadn't even realized that Annette's absence left a hole in her heart until it began to fill at this moment. She hugged her a little tighter before they pulled apart.

"So a little birdie told me you're joining the Scouting Legion…" Annette began, guiding Leah by the hand to sit beside her on the couch. Wolfram immediately crawled back onto her lap the moment she sat down.

Leah's heart clenched; her upcoming enrollment had finally slipped her mind for the first time that day, but it seemed that she couldn't be allowed more than a moment of release from the subject. "I'll have to graduate, first," she muttered. Annette chuckled lightly.

"Well, yes, I guess that's true, huh? Y'know, I was dumb to join… I thought it would be _fun _to give it a go. Let me tell you, it-" She stopped herself, touching a finger to her lip before continuing. "Oh, I won't have anything to say that you don't already know… But, I can honestly admit that I'm glad you're joining. Not 'cause I want you to be traumatized, or beat up, or put in danger… I just know you're cut out for this, and the world _needs _more soldiers like you."

The room was silent at that point; silence seemed to be a common side effect of making a subject of Leah Arlert. "…thank you," she responded simply after avoiding Annette's gentle gaze for at least ten seconds. She got to her feet, then, and absently ruffled Wolfram's hair as she stood. "I'm going to my room," she announced to nobody in particular. Nobody protested or added onto Annette's little speech, so off she went.

Nobody requested Leah's presence until she was summoned for dinner. "Leah, honey, after dinner, can you do me a favor?" Elle asked as everyone filled their plates. Leah stared at her in anticipation. As distant as she was, she had always been an obedient and helpful daughter overall. "I miscalculated how much eggplant we'd need this season, and ended up harvesting too much. Would you mind taking some of the surplus over to your Uncle Levi and Aunt Calynn?"

Leah shook her head, which could have been interpreted as a "no," but her parents knew meant "Not at all, I'd love to." Her mother scooped a few more spoonfuls of mashed potatoes onto her plate before adding onto her request. "…I was actually talking to my sister earlier, and I told her our current situation… I would also like you to say good-bye to them."

This time, Leah nodded.

And so once the table was cleared, Leah wrapped herself up in a jacket and her favorite scarf (it was an identical version of the red one her Aunt Mikasa had worn since she was Leah's age), took the bag of eggplant from her mother, and went right next door to the house of her only biological aunt and uncle.

She rapped gently on the door with her knuckles and then tucked her hand beneath her arm to protect it from the evening chill. There was no doubt in her mind that someone inside would hear her light knock: it was always quiet in the household of Lance Corporal Levi. A few silent seconds ticked by, then at last her aforementioned uncle unlocked the door and peered through just a crack. The subtle clicking and sliding of the door's chain lock followed the appearance of Levi's dark-rimmed eye, and he opened the door all the way. "Leah… Come in."

Leah silently obeyed. Levi clicked all the locks back into place behind her.

"Mom wanted me to bring some eggplant," she informed him quietly, holding out the bag. Levi held out his hand for her to give it to him, scrutinizing the bag with the unnerving apathy he constantly wore. He may have uttered a thank you, but if he had, it was so soft that Leah easily decided she could have imagined it.

"Was that all?" His voice was always massively more expressive than his face, and his tone revealed he was skeptic. He gazed down at her, though just slightly: even though Leah was only almost nearing five feet in height, she was but a few inches away from seeing eye-to-eye with her uncle. Despite being well over forty years old and extremely in shape (as expected of the world's best soldier), Levi was only five foot, three inches tall. Ironically, his wife was even shorter: hardly taller than 11-year-old Leah at _all._ It had been a joke amongst Levi and Calynn's comrades ever since they first entered a relationship years and years ago that they were truly meant for each other: both were dedicated to the Scouting Legion, antisocial, burdened with sour attitudes, and the heights of a 10 year old boy.

"No," Leah admitted, glancing off to the side to avoid his eyes. She hesitated. "I-"

"I'm going to put these in the kitchen," Levi cut her off, holding the bag of eggplant up slightly. He turned and headed to the indicated room without another word, as if he expected some explanation, yet also didn't desire one. Since she hadn't been asked to leave, but also wasn't exactly keen on waiting awkwardly in the middle of the living room, Leah shuffled after her uncle. She stood unobtrusively in the doorway while Levi set the bag down on the counter and planted a kiss on his wife's head. She was washing dishes with the help of Doriane: their intelligent 8-year-old daughter. Levi murmured something in Calynn's ear and she glanced over her shoulder, grayish-teal eyes widening as she beheld her niece in the kitchen entrance.

"Oh, hello, Leah," she greeted with a slight smile while turning off the sink. Doriane followed her mother's gaze with her bright eyes, and grinned widely when she saw her cousin. She waved cheerfully at her but received no response.

Leah decided to be trite. "…Mom said she spoke to you earlier. She wants me to say good-bye." It wasn't as if she didn't particularly enjoy the company of this part of her family, or like she wished to return home quickly: she simply wasn't one to beat around the bush, was all.

The expressions of Levi and Calynn both sobered with an edge of moroseness, while Doriane's little face only displayed confusion. "Good-bye? Where're you going, Leah?"

"…the training camps," Leah answered gently, her blue eyes flitting over to the girl. Doriane gasped so dramatically that one would expect her to pass out from drawing in so much air at once. She hopped down from her stool and dried her hands on a nearby towel.

"You mean like Dill and Don?! Wow…! I can't _wait _until I'm big enough to go. I want to train and get cool and strong, like Mommy, and Daddy, and my big brothers!" she announced, standing as tall as she could at four feet. Most parents would be aghast to see their youngest child display such enthusiasm toward joining the military; however, Levi and Calynn showed absolutely no change in demeanor, for such an attitude was only to be expected from the child of two Scouting Legion Squad Leaders.

Leah said nothing.

"…I'm surprised you didn't leave last year, to be honest," Calynn muttered. A hint of a smile almost twitched at the corner of her mouth. "You're so much like Mikasa… Are you looking for advice, or anything?" Leah just shook her head. This time, a ghost of a smile _did _appear on Calynn's face. "Hn, didn't think so. …ah, but, can I actually ask a small favor of you? We've written letters for Dillon and Donovan, and were going to mail them in the morning… But, no sense in that if they can be hand-delivered, right?"

"Right," Leah agreed in barely a whisper.

"Come with me, I'll get them." Leah gave a slight nod to her head and followed her aunt out of the kitchen and up the stairs. She noticed Levi pull Doriane close and give her a peck on the cheek without even looking at her. Such gestures had become second nature to Levi ever since the sentimental-despite-his-cold-exterior man had first become a father.

Calynn led Leah up the stairs to her and Levi's bedroom. Leah decided it most polite to wait out in the hallway as her aunt retrieved the letters. Still, she stole a peek inside the room as Calynn entered, not out of any nosiness, but simply because her eyes happened to graze past the doorway. She had no intent of truly looking, and yet her stare found itself inadvertently glued to one item. Try as she might, she could not peel away: there was a sort of haunting magnetism to the item, something intriguing and equally chilling.

It was a black and white photograph, taken a bit less than 10 years ago- probably 6 or 7. It displayed Levi and Calynn, actually forcing out smiles for the occasion, Levi with his arm around a usually-grumpy, but smiling in this instant, Dillon, Calynn with hers around an expressionless little Donovan. But there were two other people in this photograph, each clinging to the parents' pant legs. They were small toddlers, hardly able to stand on their own, one a girl with a smile identical to Doriane's, the other-

Leah was abruptly overwhelmed with a wave of nostalgia. The impact was so heavy that she stumbled back a step, bracing herself against the wall. Her breathing suddenly came raggedly; _she remembered. _She remembered that other toddler, that dark-haired little boy that resembled the younger Doriane in every way except for the length of his hair. She remembered his name- Darin- she remembered who he was, Doriane's twin brother…

Most importantly, she remembered that day.

The day had been bittersweet: more so bitter than sweet, however, though nobody in the family chose to remember it that way. It was like adding a single grain of sugar to black tea, and pretending that the presence of that _tiny _sweetness changed its flavor completely. Wolfram had been born on that day: the dash of sweetness. He was tiny and a week or two premature, and born in a dank and chilly basement, but he was healthy overall, and a precious bundle of joy.

But only the Arlerts would remember that day as a day for celebration: for the rest of humanity, the date marked when the Titans breached the wall again for the first time in years. Leah's specific memories were opaque and distorted: she could recall playing in the backyard with Donovan, hearing Annette say she was going out to the forest to pick flowers, and cheery little Darin piping up, saying he would go with her. It was probably less than an hour later that things fell to chaos, and Leah's mind blurred as if drunken. She was still playing with Donovan- inside, now- when screams sounded from outside. Her mother was screaming the entire time, but somehow she drowned that out. She remembered her father frantically ushering all the children into the basement and guiding Elle; she remembered Fritz not being there at first, but then suddenly he was, sobbing with only one broken crutch, clinging to their Uncle Levi and thanking him over and over as if he could say nothing else. Levi was wearing his Scouting Legion uniform.

And then Annette was there too; her dress was torn and muddy, her face was uncharacteristically crestfallen, tears were streaming down her face. She held no flowers despite returning from flower picking. There was a dark gap in Leah's memories after that: she assumed this meant she had fallen asleep. But she woke up in the middle of the night, she remembered that: her mother was sleeping, but her father was not, he was sitting against the basement wall with a swaddled up baby in his arms. Levi was sitting with him. She knew what Levi said then: "Darin is dead." She knew, yet she doubted herself nonetheless, as if confused as to whether she was recounting a dream, or real life.

It took a moment, but suddenly she understood this bewilderment. For the past 4 years, everyone went on acting as if that tragedy- the overwhelming bitterness- had been nonexistent. A dream. Levi's wife had never bore twins, only a girl named Doriane. The girl grew up confused beyond confusion, finally deciding that "Darin" had only been a very realistic imaginary friend. Sometimes Calynn, and even Levi on the worst occasions, would cry in the middle of the night. But if anyone asked, there was no reason behind the tears.

Darin had become a figment of his family's imagination. For some, however, it was harder than others to erase him from their minds: he lingered constantly in the back of his parents' and siblings' heads, despite their efforts to move on, for example. It was questionably the worst for Annette, who had seen the Titan devour the tiny boy like some light snack, all because she could not urge him to run away quickly enough.

I don't want this family to lose any more children.

"Here you are." Leah's head whipped around as Calynn's voice shattered her brigade of recovered dark memories, so abruptly that she banged her forehead on the wall and had to balance herself again. Her aunt gaped at her. "Leah, are you-?"

"I'm fine," Leah insisted in a hush, holding her throbbing head with one hand and snatching the outstretched letters with the other. Calynn gave her a moment to recover, and then spoke.

"…Leah. You know I'm not one to sugarcoat things, but… You're going to do well in training." She gently touched Leah's face; she was never big on physical contact with anyone besides her husband or her children. "I know you'll make an excEllent soldier."

And then suddenly Leah was not in the hall outside of her aunt's bedroom: she was in a forest, alone except for a hideous Titan and the screaming young boy it held in its clutches, as if _she_ had been the one to watch that sweet little boy get swallowed whole by the type of creature she was shipping herself away to fight, as if she was recounting Annette's memories as her own… Annette, the sister whose comforting hugs she had almost rejected, the sister who _didn't want this family to lose any more children…_

For the first time, she was rethinking her decision. She was not scared: she was aghast and horrified.

"…thank you," she choked out, shaking and looking everywhere but at her aunt. And then she ran home, letters to her cousins tight in hand.


	5. Chapter 4

Disappointment. Confusion. Irritation. Oblivion. These were all emotions that numbed Leah Arlert as she stood not in a training field, but a classroom.

This was a catastrophe: she had been lied to! From what she'd heard from her parents, she would start out slaving away on some rich man's farm to build character; from what she'd heard from Annette, she'd leap right into training; and yet, neither was the case. The morning of her departure was a complete blur in her mind in her state of anticipation. Now that the moment she had waited for was before her, everything became clear, as if she'd pressed _play _in a mental movie, or put on a pair of prescription glasses. But now she wished she could press _pause _or remove the spectacles, for she and the other handful of new trainees were escorted directly to a small building quite some distance away from any sort of training terrain available to the camps. She assured herself that this was just where the newbies were being gathered, and waited patiently for further instruction. When said instruction arrived, however, she was flooded with the aforementioned negative emotions.

The classroom was not simply a gathering area: it was where she would be spending the next year of her life. Before she learned anything beneficial toward humanity's advancement on the Titans, she would be receiving a proper education, learning principle subjects such as reading, writing, and arithmetic, with a dash of science and history. Her new teacher- a young, yet obviously refined and intelligent woman- explained the curriculum with a sincere smile on her face. The room was silent afterwards; Leah's peers probably had their minds elsewhere, just like hers was. However, the subjects they were contemplating surely weren't important enough to bring to anyone's attention. Leah decided after a couple moments that her concerns, though, _did _require sharing.

"…excuse me, ma'am," she called quietly. All eyes turned to her and she froze. Speaking up was _not _in her division, and she preferred being overlooked to being scrutinized… Still, she was rarely one to draw back on her word, so she continued on with her calm composure intact. "This system is different from the ones my elder sister and my parents have told me about."

The teacher-Ms. Creed- had busied herself with organizing her desk until Leah's quiet voice, seeming much more voluminous in the silent room, caught her attention. That gentle-but-not-too-loving smile of hers appeared on her face and she straightened herself up. "Ah, yes, there is a reason behind that… Back when your parents were trainees, twelve years was the minimal age that children could enroll in these camps. They graduated three years later. This time around, however, the system's been altered. How old was your sister when she enrolled, dear? And how old are _you?_"

"She was twelve. I'm eleven," Leah answered apathetically. The teacher nodded.

"As I suspected. You see, now, we have lowered the minimum age requirement to _ten. _However, any child under that original minimum- so, ten- or eleven-year-olds- will not be using the camps for the same purpose as their upperclassmen. Formerly, trainees received _no _education aside from anything their parents taught them, or the lectures they were given on Titan history. So, it's been decided that if a child wishes to join the camps _under _the age of twelve, that extra year or two will not be used toward their physical training, but instead to broaden their knowledge."

"…I see." And, except for when she was the only one in class that knew the answer to a question, that was the last time Leah's classmates would hear from her for another year.

She barreled through the year independently and swiftly. Her mindset became that of a tunnel, as she concentrated on her current assignments but still never lost sight of her ultimate goal to partake in actual training. The year ahead served only as an obstacle, in Leah's mind. She would not benefit from this: her father was one of humanity's most intelligent (second only to Scouting Legion squad leader Hanji Zoe), and her mother was enthusiastic about education, so all the Arlert children were reading and writing by the age of four or five. She didn't view her classmates as potential friends- bonds of friendship were futile, for odds were one or both of them would end up dying before their time- but as opportunities to view what were future comrades were like. After she got a taste for their personalities, they were completely insignificant to her. As admittedly clichéd as she knew it was, she kept a tally of how many days remained until she would be making legitimate use of her time. 365 days… It was an obstacle in her path, and she embraced it stone-heartedly.

One day, a little less than halfway through the year, Ms. Creed held her back as the rest of her classmates headed off to their dorms. "Leah, sweetheart… I've been meaning to talk to you." Leah stood silently as she waited for the teacher to continue. Ms. Creed sighed quietly at the silence. "You're _such _a bright young lady… Your essays, and your worksheets… They're written so _intricately, _so in depth." A slight blush rose to Leah's cheeks there; she treated her schoolwork oppositely to how she treated real life conversations.

"My parents educated me from a young age."

"Hm, well, it most certainly shows." Ms. Creed had been fiddling absently with the pens on her desk, but here she set them down and looked Leah directly in the face. "Leah, you have so much potential, you're so _intelligent… _Why are you so miserable?"

This took Leah aback quite a bit, but she managed to stand her ground. The only hint of emotion she let slip was a slight furrowing of her eyebrows. She needn't defend herself, insisting she was not _miserable, _because Ms. Creed hopped on the offense straight away. "You are content, that much is the truth. However, that doesn't necessarily mean you're _happy. _I see your eyes staring at the clock every so often, and I see how quickly you hustle out of the classroom… When class starts, you're always the only one in your seat. All of your peers are talking amongst each other… Dear, why don't you make any friends?"

"I came here to learn how to kill Titans, not to make friends," she answered hastily, as if somewhere in the back of her mind this response had been lurking patiently, just waiting for the opportunity to be said. Her eyes widened as the words left her lips; it sounded so… brutal. …but that didn't make it any less true. She was only being honest.

Surprisingly, Ms. Creed's demeanor remained completely unaffected, as if she'd expected that exact response out of her. Nonetheless, she passed right over the remark. "First impressions are lasting impressions, Ms. Arlert. And you were the first student's voice I ever heard; that's going to stick with me for a long time." _I would think by now you'd realize that impression gave you a false interpretation of me, _Leah wanted to say. Of course, she did not. "I understand that you don't want to befriend any of your classmates. I wasn't exactly a social butterfly myself, when I was a child. But, I have a proposal for you: would you do me the honor of considering _me _a friend?"

That certainly caught Leah off guard; so much so that she allowed her surprise to show itself in her expression. Adults certainly were easier to approach… Adults didn't ridicule or judge children. Not openly, at least. And Ms. Creed certainly seemed generous enough… "...I suppose, there's nothing wrong with that," she murmured, giving a slight nod to her head.

Ms. Creed's smile widened. "Glad to hear it." She outstretched her hand, and Leah took it with a great deal less hesitation than she usually dealt out. A friend…. Her reclusive shell cracked all the way open for the time being, and she permitted a smile about the size of Ms. Creed's usual one to appear on her face. She slipped her hand back to her side after giving Ms. Creed's hand a shake. It was due past time to return to her room, but she didn't wish to leave… She needed an excuse, _any _excuse to linger…

Her eyes obeyed her latent pleas and landed on a picture frame on the corner of Ms. Creed's desk. While she would normally disregard such things, her current state of vulnerability caused her curiosity to rear its head. Ms. Creed followed her gaze, smiled, and turned the frame around. It contained a photograph, of course, displaying two infants, sleeping soundly under the same blanket with little heads of wispy brown hair- one more chestnut, one more auburn. "Aren't they precious? Arthur and Alice… Of course, this was taken four years ago. They're quite a bit bigger now."

"They're, your children?" Leah inferred: the type of question she would have kept silent until the person she was conversing with answered on their own accord in normal circumstances.

"Ah, yes, I probably should have said that first," Ms. Creed chuckled. "I feel awful leaving them at home, but… I've always aspired to be a teacher. I often read to the children in my town. Mine weren't excluded, of course… Already intelligent little angels, those twins," she explained affectionately.

Leah thought it peculiar that she mentioned nothing of the children's father, but even in her talkative state, she knew that was a line she shouldn't cross. "…you said they're four years old? So is my baby brother." Her heart gave a pang at the thought of little Wolfram. They weren't nearly as close as he was to Annette or Fritz, but she still missed him dearly. "He's also very smart… Loves reading with my other brother."

"Is that so? I'm sure he'd get along well with mine, then." Leah nodded, continuing to smile slightly, until they fell into silence. "…well, dinner will be prepared soon. You might as well head right there, instead of stopping by your room at all," Ms. Creed suggested, standing and smoothing out her skirt. Leah's shoulders slumped. She readapted her demeanor of apathy, covering up her crestfallen disappointment, while still clinging to the cherished moment she'd just shared with her teacher. Her first friend that wasn't in her family.

The day finally came that Leah could at last record her 365th tally mark. She had visited her family ten times throughout the year and sent a total of thirty-four letters home, most of them simple responses to letters her family had written first. The only side commentary she ever included was about Ms. Creed: the teacher was the only thing that made the days durable and even occasionally enjoyable. Nevertheless, that final day closing out her year of education would be the last time she saw her for many years. Leah Arlert never paid that school building a visit: she had finally exited the tunnel in the way of her training as a soldier, and she had no intention of looking back.

Her excitement was immeasurable as all the new soldiers-to-be filed out into the unpaved courtyard outside of the trainees' dormitories and mess hall. Their numbers far exceeded that of her class: at least twenty children ages twelve and older had decided to just now begin their training, thus skipping out on the year or two of schooling. Everyone received their uniforms that morning: the same white pants, tan half-body jackets, and brown boots as the soldiers, except their backs displayed the emblem of the trainees (two swords crossing over each other). Leah felt a flood of confidence as she slipped the jacket over her white button-down shirt. She folded the collar down and left the top couple buttons undone, pulled her boots all the way up to her knees, and wiped her face of all expression, then headed out to the courtyard with her head held high.

The trainees stood at attention as their instructor appeared, scowling beneath a face of endless wrinkles. Old age had weathered the man- Keith Shadis, was his name- and robbed him of both the ability to walk without assistance from a cane, and the ear-splitting shouting capability he had used to mold the walls' youths into potential Titan-killing machines years ago. Even with his limp and obvious elderliness, he gave off a powerful vibe of brutal authority.

Leah had been warned about this man: it was said that if you had the slightest shred of self-respect, former commander of the Scouting Legion Instructor Shadis would pry it away from you and rip it apart inside and out. Back when her parents had been trainees, Instructor Shadis didn't lend his guidance until later in training when the trainees were a little better equipped to dealing with his merciless drills. But apparently, the addition of the one-or-two-years of educated pretense was not the only change in the camp's system. Leah wasn't worried about his brutality, though, since she was gifted in the art of selective listening. Besides: she had been told that the instructor only attacked trainees that gave off an air of being unfit for training (both of her parents had been deemed as such). She was confident enough that she would not.

It seemed, however, that Keith Shadis had grown pickier in his old age. That, or at least more attentive.

"You there, blondie. Y'seem familiar." Leah's heart stopped as she heard his voice aimed at her. She had been so prepared for him to walk right by, as he had with her Aunt Mikasa so many years ago, that it caught her completely off guard when the opposite happened. "Blonde hair, big ol' blue eyes, pipsqueak figure…. That's right, y'look like _Armin Arlert," _he decided, bringing his face just a few centimeters from hers so as to examine her uncomfortably closely. She could smell the reek of his breath and feel the tickle of his grayed goatee; still, she didn't falter under his intense stare.

"Armin Arlert is my father, sir," Leah answered calmly. He raised his eyebrows, lifting a couple layers of wrinkles along with them.

"But you remind me of someone else, too. Mikasa Ackerman, I'd say. Damn _amazing _soldier, prob'ly best I've ever trained. I get the same vibe from you that I did from that young lady. She end up shacking up with Mr. Arlert?"

Now thatmade Leah shudder a bit; the idea of anyone besides her mother, _especially _her Aunt Mikasa, "shacking up" with her father was absolutely repulsing. "No, sir. My mother is Elle Gracada, sir."

Instructor Shadis scrunched his eyebrows, not backing up from Leah's face. _"That _low-life? Tch, makes sense, I'd say. Never seen a set of more athletically-incapable 'soldiers' in my life. Nearly failed every physical test we threw at 'em. Come to think of it, so did _Annette _Arlert. She related to you?"

"Yes, sir. My sister."

"Well she's one of the biggest failures I ever seen go through these camps. 'Least your daddy had brains on his side. Your mama and big sis? They got nothing going for them. Both of 'em belong in the kitchen with a baby on 'er hip, that's about it."

Leah remained silent. Was this the worst he had in store? Bad-mouthing her family with things that honestly weren't far from the truth? Her mother was too clumsy to be of much use to the Stationary Guard for more than a few years, her father would constantly say how he wouldn't have survived a day in the Scouting Legion without his vast intelligence, and Annette had left camps before even graduating. Keith Shadis was only spitting out cold hard facts, and Leah had hardened her heart past the point of allowing the truth to hurt.

"Now the question is, are you like them? You gonna abandon your post to go get married? Or drag your ass through your whole career and suck at what you do?" the instructor pried, jabbing a finger at Leah's shoulder. His stare intensified, and she gazed apathetically right back at him.

"No, sir," was her simple yet firm response. Finally, Keith stepped back and returned Leah's personal space to her.

"Can't say I doubt you, Ms. Arlert." And with that surprisingly reassuring statement, he limped off to heckle the next poor soul.

By the time Instructor Shadis dismissed the traumatized new trainees after a detailed description of exactly what they were signing up for, Leah had noticed a change in each and every one of their demeanors. Those that had put on a semblance of calm composure had completely cracked their shells, shaking, sniffling, and crying in the worst cases. Just about everyone else was trembling with sobs, burying their faces in their hands or hugging themselves and showing signs of regret. Even Leah herself had tears prickling against the back of her eyes…. Tears of joy and eagerness, that is.

This was it. This was what she had been waiting for, dreaming of, since she first began listening to her Uncle Eren's stories. The road ahead was challenging, but a challenge was what she had been yearning for her entire life. She was far beyond ready; she had been born to be a soldier. Although she never believed in anything as clichéd as "fate" and "destiny," she understood what hers was. And this was where she belonged.


	6. Chapter 5

The trainees were dismissed to the mess hall after the mildly dehumanizing introduction meeting, where their older peers had already gathered after concluding some hand-to-hand combat training. Everyone sat wherever was available, in distinguishable groups: those that had gone through the year or two of schooling stuck with the friends they'd made over the months, and those that were brand new stuck with others who were _also _brand new. Leah, however, did not fit into either of those assemblages. She stood alone in the doorway even when everyone else had been seated, scanning the room for one particular person. A head of black hair cut into an undercut identical to his father's, seated at the far end of the least crowded table…

"Donovan," Leah called out. Her voice was smothered by the chatty din of the mess hall, yet Donovan still heard her; there was something about the sound of one's name that seems to alert their senses from even miles away. He glanced over his shoulder and his eyes flickered with recognition as they landed on the blonde girl in the doorway. He only continued to stare at her as she approached him in a brisk walk. "…Don…" she repeated, urging a response out of him, his eyes _still _remaining glued to her face. She stared expressionlessly back at him, although she could feel herself beginning to worry. Why wasn't he talking? Had a training accident happened that robbed him of his ability to speak? Was he undergoing amnesia?

Finally, after scrutinizing her for a concerning length of time, he spoke. "Leah. You're here." Knowing better than to wait from a response from her, he grabbed her by the wrist and gave it a tug, signaling for her to sit beside him. She complied immediately, relieved of her ridiculous brief anxieties.

The pair chatted briefly about their experiences since they had last seen each other, until a faint growl from Leah's stomach reminded her that she was in a mess hall. Everything that needed to be said had been said before she got up, so when she returned with a tray of food, they sat in silence. Not that this bothered either of them.

"…this is supposed to be spaghetti sauce," Donovan commented at one point, staring down at his own tray. Leah only glanced up at him with a raised eyebrow. He wasn't looking at her, anyway; he was too busy intently poking the red "sauce" in his pasta with a fork. "I don't even think these are real tomatoes. …why do people insist tomatoes are vegetables? Idiots. They're obviously a fruit." He pierced one of the chunks with the fork and held it up to examine it. "They've got juice and seeds, and taste too good to be a vegetable."

Leah covered her mouth with one hand to conceal the grin that had snuck onto her face. Ever since he was old enough to eat solid foods, Donovan had a strange love for fruit. He needed to eat fruit every day, in each meal, of a vast variety. He even enjoyed eating _lemons._ It was a unique quirk, to say the least… He stared at the tomato chunk for a few seconds longer before sticking it into his mouth. "…mm. Definitely not real," he concluded.

The next few minutes were spent with Donovan explaining the distinct differences between organic and artificial fruits, Leah listening attentively without _really _listening. She loved her cousin; adored him more than she could understand. Except for the grayish-teal color of his eyes, and of course his special little quirks, he was practically an exact copy of his father. Physically, Donovan was the spitting image of a younger Levi: same short yet extremely fit build, same sunken eyes, same facial structure. They even both constantly wore an expressionless face that gave the illusion of apathy, while their eyes and voices both displayed plenty of emotion. Also just like Levi, Donovan gave off a strong vibe of intimidation and coldness, yet once he let you in, it was revealed that he wasn't like that at all. Very blunt, and undeniably strange, Levi and Donovan were both actually very talkative, especially about their passions. Titan-killing was a mutual skill for them; what really set them apart was that Levi was most passionate about his family, while Donovan's biggest passion was his fruit.

"Where's your brother?" Leah asked a little while after Donovan concluded his ramblings. It was almost time for them to leave the hall, and Leah had been too hung up with Donovan to notice she hadn't seen her other cousin, Dillon.

"The dorms," Donovan answered, swallowing the final bite of his bread. A shroud of sadness flickered in his eyes. "He sleeps during meals. They put him in a girls' dorm, because nobody _listens _when he says he's a boy, and his roommates don't want him in there with them because of his identity. So he catches up on sleep when everyone's eating, and smuggles food from the kitchen at night," he explained in a low voice. Leah felt her heart pang for her older cousin. He had never had any problems with his misinterpreted gender before the camps; the entire family accepted his decided masculinity. But now that he was out in the world… Not everyone was so tolerant.

"…what does he do for the rest of the night? Smuggling food doesn't take very long," Leah pointed out quietly.

"Train," was Donovan's blunt reply. Then he stood and threw away his trash.

Leah advanced through training with flying colors. Their first test was a balance exercise, to see how well the trainees would be able to handle the 3D maneuver gear used to kill the Titans. Many people took several attempts before they didn't fall flat on their faces; Leah, on the other hand, balanced herself perfectly on her first try as if she had been born to be strapped to a device that suspended you in the air by two cords hooked onto your belt. When the trainees were taken up into the snowy mountains and forced to run with packs weighing about the same as them to test endurance, Leah returned to camp first without collapsing once. She pinned each and every one of her hand-to-hand combat opponents within a matter of seconds, until her superiors decided to move her up to practice with the older kids. Trust exercises were the only ones she showed any trouble with, but even those she mustered through by reminding herself that when she became a soldier, dealing with her comrades would have to be inevitable.

She didn't see much of Dillon; he was more of a lone wolf, and usually assigned different tasks than the newer trainees anyway. Whenever their paths did cross, however, they would exchange a nod or a little wave, or sometimes a wink. She saw _plenty _of Donovan: they shared every meal together, and when Leah was promoted in hand-to-hand, he became her sparring partner. He didn't once go easy on her, and she admired that. She learned quite a lot from her cousin.

Time passed, and eventually the trainees all gathered to watch the graduation of Dillon's squad. He placed sixth out of twenty soldiers: quite an admirable feat, but nothing anyone was surprised about. The child of Lance Corporal Levi and Squad Leader Calynn landing anything out of the top ten would simply be unheard of. Of course, he turned down the offer of a place in the Military Police and headed straight for the Scouting Legion. His and Leah's goals were identical.

And soon enough, Leah was entering her second year of training. One down, two to go…

The trainees were permitted a visit home before they resumed their almost had half a mind to decline, but a guilty conscience insisted she go check up on her family. It was exactly like all her other visits home- lots of hugs and kisses, visits from all her non-biological aunts and uncles- except for one announcement at the dinner table.

"So Leah… How would you feel about bringing some company back with you to the camps?" her mother proposed as everyone settled into their meals. Leah cocked her head slightly in confusion. Her parents exchanged a glance, then turned their attention to Fritz. Leah followed their gazes and waited for further explanation. Fritz gave her a big grin: something quite uncharacteristic of the moody boy.

"They're letting me go to the camps this year!"

Leah's spoon dropped and clattered against her soup bowl. Now that she thought about it, Fritz _had _been in abnormally high spirits all day… She had naively assumed that it was only a result of her arrival. It dawned on her now, though, that that was ridiculous, he would never get _that _excited about seeing his big sister. But this? It seemed this was the one thing that could truly make him ecstatic. "You're 12, now… You won't have to go to school," she noted, allowing a small smile to appear on her face.

"I don't need it anyway. Mom and Dad've taught me everything I need to know, and I've read up on just about everything else. I'm _plenty _smart enough and then some," he boasted. Although it sounded quite cocky, nobody commented anything along those lines; he deserved a moment of confidence.

"You'll do really well, Fritz. And if someone tries to put you down… Tell me. Your sister will set them straight," Leah promised him. The entire table erupted into laughter at this. Leah's face flushed; had it even been that funny? Certainly not, not enough to earn _that much _amusement… She guessed that everyone had just been so surprised and/or delighted to see the distant Leah crack any sort of joke that it was absolutely hilarious. Her blush deepened, and she hid her smile behind her glass of milk.

For the first time since she began, Leah skipped out on training. It wasn't anything she'd be penalized for, though: she just wanted to watch the first gathering of the new batch of trainees. See if Shadis had anything to say to her brother… She stood unobtrusively off to the side and oversaw the event.

It didn't surprise her that Instructor Keith did in fact stop in front of Fritz. After all, he stood out like a sore thumb, standing there on his crutches. "What's wrong with your legs, runt?"

Fritz stared right back at the old man through his glasses. "Born without the ability to walk on 'em, sir."

"Riddle me this, midget… How in holy hell d'you expect to _kill Titans _when you can't even _walk?" _Keith demanded, his voice booming on and off.

"You don't need legs to hold a gun or load a canon, sir. And you don't need legs to make battle plans, sir. The Scouting Legion isn't the _only _option, _sir," _Fritz retorted confidently. The crowd murmured with surprise at his backtalk; surely he'd be reprimanded for such blatant disrespect?

However, the exact opposite was the case. "What's your name, small-stuff?"

"Fritz. Fritz Marco Arlert, sir."

"An _Arlert, _eh? Looks like they just keep getting better and better, this generation. I _like _you, Fritz Marco Arlert." The instructor tapped his cane against one of Fritz's crutches, and then continued on down the line of shocked new trainees. Leah felt herself glowing with pride. Fritz hadn't even flinched… Just as expected from him. Yes, he would make an excEllent soldier. She smiled faintly to herself and ducked back to wherever she was supposed to be.

Later that day, Instructor Keith pulled Leah aside as everyone dispersed from the mess hall to their dorms for the night. "Sit with me for a bit, would you?" he offered.

"Yes, sir," Leah replied flatly, curious but not exactly frightened or excited. She expected him to lead her back inside; however, once all the trainees were out of sight, he lowered himself onto the steps they stood on with a groan.

"Y'know you're gettin' old when _sitting down_'s a problem," he muttered both to himself and to Leah. Instead of responding- what would she say to that, anyway?- Leah just sat beside him. "That little brother o' yours… He's something else, I'll tell ya. Real feisty. Already got in a fight and it's only 'is first day." Leah perked up instantaneously, her eyes gleaming with concern. _A fight? When was this? Did he get hurt? Was he the one to instigate it? _"'Course, she had it coming… Called 'im out on being a cripple."

It crossed Leah's mind that that was slightly hypocritical of him, but that wasn't something that needed to be said aloud. "He picked a fight, sir?"

Keith nodded, resting his cane across his lap. "Sure did. With a _lady, _at that. Not very chivalrous, is he?" _No, that doesn't sound like something that would matter to Fritz, _Leah thought. If someone irked Fritz, it wouldn't matter if it was a girl or boy, a kid or an elder: he'd go off on them all the was only an attribute of his hot-headedness. "Again, though, can't say I blame 'im: that girl's got a bad attitude. Good for a soldier, bad for a friend. That type o' personality. Her attitude and his temper? Yeesh, _dangerous _mix." He paused, and then turned to Leah with a grin on his wrinkled face. "Sounds like a right ol' love story to me."

Leah's eyes widened at that. Fritz? A love story? The two were of completely different elements. They just didn't add up. She hadn't the slightest notion of what to say on that topic, and Keith seemed to have zoned out a bit, so the next few moments were silent. "…Fritz is a good kid, though. Deep down," Leah eventually murmured. She didn't exactly mean to speak, or believe that she needed to, but it was evident that Instructor Keith had starting drifting off to some other place. Even so, hearing her speak hardly channeled the instructor at all.

"Mhm," was all he uttered back, still gazing off into nothingness. Leah was just about ready to get up and walk off when Instructor Keith snapped back to reality, tilting his head to look down at her. "I know you ain't one looking for advice, but I'm gonna give you the best that I can: don't fall in love, kid. Love's a hindrance: only makes you weak, and gets in the way." He shifted slightly up the step. "Lookit your parents. Fell in love, got married, never touched their gear again. Lance Corporal Levi almost got 'imself killed God-only-knows how many times 'cause of that stupid girlfriend of his." Leah thought it irrelevant to mention that his "stupid girlfriend" was the sister of her mother, and now Levi's wife. "Lookit- …well, I'm sure there are plenty of other examples. Then, take a lookit Eren Jaeger. Never dallied with romance, and he's still as dedicated to his cause as he had been when he was a kid. I never even thought about that type of shit, and here I am. I hear Mikasa Ackerman's still kicking; she never batted an eye at anyone, and she's one of our best soldiers to date."

Now that, Leah thought was worthy of comment. "…but sir, Mikasa Ackerman is married."

Keith's eyebrows disappeared into his wrinkles, his sunken eyes showing quite the amount of bafflement. "Who the hell to?"

"Jean Kirschstein, sir."

The instructor coughed so loudly that Leah felt herself jump slightly. He let out a series of wheezing that could be interpreted as laughter. "_Kirschstein_? No god damned way. I remember that horse faced little rat like I just had 'im in training yesterday… Not like I could forget a pompous asshole like him anytime soon. Alright, alright, maybe the Devil decided to play matchmaker and put those two together. But can ya honestly say they're in love?"

Leah paused for a moment, contemplating the question. Could she? The looks Jean gave his wife were undeniably affectionate, yet… They were far from the adoring stares her parents gave each other, and her aunt and uncle exchanged when they thought nobody was looking. "…no, sir. They only married because they deemed marriage to be essential."

A satisfactory grin appeared on Keith's weathered face, and he tilted his cane toward her approvingly. "See? No love there. And are they still great soldiers?"

"…yes, sir."

Instructor Keith nudged his cane against Leah's knee. _"See? _You'll hear people rant 'n rave 'bout how wonderful and worthwhile love is, but that's only if they're regular ol' people. Soldiers like us? We don't got time for that shit. You offer up your heart to the military; not to some other person. Understand, kid?"

"Yes, sir." And quite honestly, she did. Most girls dreamt of their knight in shining armor since they were little, wished to fall and love and wondered who they'd end up with… Not Leah. She loved her parents, she loved her siblings, she loved her aunts and uncles and cousins. Wasn't that enough? She saw no reason that it shouldn't be.

"Good." The instructor clapped her hard on the shoulder in approval. He grabbed his cane and propped it on the ground, heaving all his weight against it to get himself up. Leah saw it best to stand as well. "Welp, nice talk, Ms. Arlert. You have a good night, now."

"Same to you, sir." She gave him the soldier salute and he nodded in acknowledgement, limping off to his own cabin. Leah, however, couldn't bring herself to move. Don't fall in love, huh… _That _was the best advice he could give her? In that case, it seemed she really _didn't _need any advice. She knew better than to do something as stupid as fall in love anyway, it was in her nature as a soldier. She was never going to fall in love, and that much was obvious.

Or so she thought.


	7. Chapter 6

Yet another year passed, and Donovan's training was approaching its final lap. Leah tried to detach herself from her feelings of yearning for him to stay: it wasn't like she _needed _her cousin around to complete her training… She was going to become a soldier, regardless of the circumstances. Besides, there was still an entire year remaining before he would be graduating from the camps and joining the Scouting Legion. Meanwhile, Doriane, now eleven years old, was entering her second and final year of schooling. Leah hadn't even known that the girl had been learning in Ms. Creed's class all this time, since the new students traveled and slept separately from the trainees, until Donovan brought it up during lunch one day. It honestly didn't surprise her; Doriane was such a bright young girl, constantly seeking new opportunities for knowledge.

Now that her days with her undeniably favorite cousin were numbered (at least until her own graduation), Leah decided she needed to spend as much time as possible with him. As serious as he had ever been about his training, Donovan skipped out on every opportunity to visit home, and compensated for it by increasing the number of letters he wrote to his family. In order to fulfill her goal, Leah did the same. It wasn't until one of the final visits permitted to the trainees that Donovan decided to take a trip home, and so Leah came along with him. Doriane went as well, though that was to be expected: she returned home as frequently as was allowed.

Fritz did not come back with them, since he had gone home at nearly every other opportunity. The oldest Arlert boy had made rather admirable progress himself throughout his first year. His noteworthy upper-body strength, combined with support from the Instructor Shadis and his fondness of him, allowed him to advance through his training almost as if he was as physically capable as his comrades. Naturally, he faced judgement and discrimination because of his disability and the belief that he was getting by from riding Keith's coattail; still, he managed to fit into a group of good friends that didn't see his lack of mobility as a reason to dislike him. His rivalry with the girl he'd picked a fight with on his first day- Gisela Pirelli, was her name- only continued to grow stronger. Whether they viewed each other as valuable competitors or legitimately loathed one another, nobody could be sure.

And so, with a letter from Fritz in hand, Donovan at her side, and Doriane chatting animatedly across the carriage, Leah headed home to her family for the first time in a few months.

The years since Leah first became a trainee had made changes in the members of the Arlert family. Annette, practically a grown woman at 17 years old, had become even more beautiful than she already had been. The faint aroma of flowers constantly floated throughout the Arlert household thanks to the endless flood of the town's young men proposing their affections to her. She always turned them down, but didn't have the heart to fully reject them, and so vase upon vase contained their flowery gifts until they wilted.

Tobias had grown the most. It seemed he gained an inch with each month: despite only being 9, he could already nearly see eye-to-eye with Leah. His originally blonde hair grew redder and redder thanks to his ginger-haired maternal grandfather, turning it a more strawberry-blonde shade. While he hadn't quite yet outgrown his "baby face," he was quickly turning into a handsome young man. He had planned on heading to the camps the following year; however, after learning he'd have to go through two years of _schooling, _he decided to wait until he turned 12. With his rash personality and short attention span, school didn't exactly appeal to him.

Not excluded was dear little Wolfram. Although he had grown exactly as much as a healthy child should in three years, he had been tiny to begin with, and so was still small enough for even Annette to carry around effortlessly. His big blue eyes and head of curly blonde hair added to his semblance of youthful innocence. Since his eyesight declined as his height and intelligence increased, he would be needing glasses soon: a component that would only add to his childlike appeal.

Time had begun to play a part in Mr. and Mrs. Arlert's appearances as well. Elle's wavy blonde hair, once ragged and cut above the ears in her younger years but now fell an inch past her shoulders, contained a streak or two of gray. Its constant state of messiness was questionably worse than it had ever been before parenthood, when keeping her hair tidy was slightly more of a priority. No gray hairs could be found on Armin's head (perhaps in his beard, if he didn't shave it clean off every morning); however, his growing age was still evident. His face- particularly his eyes, which had always shined with wisdom beyond his years- had become weathered with a decade or two of life experiences, plus the hours he spent hunched over research, books, and equations caused a constant slouch in his shoulders and back. Come 10 years, there was no doubt he'd be in need of a cane.

Leah herself looked much different than she had back at the start of her training: although she kept her straight blonde hair cut above her shoulders so as to keep it out of the way, she grew taller by at least three inches and gained around ten pounds of muscle. The first thing her parents said to her when they greeted her at the front door was how beautiful she'd become, as if they'd been apart for years as opposed to months.

Since the caravan that took the students and the trainees home had gotten held up when one of the horses toward the front got spooked and injured itself, the sun had started to set by the time Leah had hugged and received kisses from her parents and all her siblings. "So, missy, how's-"

"I'm not, in a mood to talk," Leah interrupted her sister when the males of the Arlert household dispersed and Leah was left alone with Annette and her mother. Her eyes widened when she acknowledged how loudly and rudely she had interjected. (Granted, she hadn't so much as shouted, but that she raised her voice at all was enough to be deemed 'too loud' by Leah.) "…sorry, Ann," she murmured as Annette clamped her mouth shut, taken aback by her little sister's outburst. "I'm just… tired."

"Oh, I'm sure you are!" Annette responded easily, loosening back up and smiling warmly. "Sorry, hun. We can catch up in the morning, right?"

Leah nodded. "Oy, before I forget…" She fished the neatly folded but hastily written letter from Fritz out of her jacket pocket, and pressed it into her mother's palm. "From Fritz," she answered the unasked question.

"Ah, thanks, sweetheart. Your bed has clean sheets, and I've laid out some pajamas for you," Elle informed her, absently running her fingers along the crease of the paper in her hand.

"Thanks, Mom… Good night."

"Good night, Leah," Elle and Annette said in unison. Elle pressed a kiss to her younger daughter's cheek before disappearing into her husband's office to share the letter with him. Leah permitted a hug from her elder sister, and then trudged up the stairs into the bedroom that had been unoccupied for the longest.

The room was exactly as she'd left it: tidy, with no clothes strewn about anywhere or anything sticking out of any drawers. Even if it had been cluttered, her room would still be rather plain, with its gentle blue walls and nothing but a bed, a desk, a basic bureau, and a small closet. Thin white curtains framed the window on the right-most wall to filter the sunlight. It was that window that made Leah love her room so much: the room was located alongside the big third story room they used as an attic, and so the window provided a vast view of the town below. She could see for miles from up there… Sometimes, she would pull up the chair from her desk and just sit by the window, watching the sun dip below the horizon. It was the sentimental type of hobby she would never admit to, but enjoyed all the same.

As promised, a clean nightgown awaited her atop a crisply made bed. Leah didn't even recall changing into the pajamas, just that suddenly she was more comfortable than she had been in months and asleep a moment later.

When she awoke the next morning, Leah was surprised to find that her room was engulfed in sunlight much brighter than most early mornings. She shuffled over to her window and peered out it, only to discover that the sun was so high in the sky that it at _least _had to be noon. She rubbed at her eyes as if the sun would be lower if she looked at it better, but of course, it remained right where it was. Still half asleep, she stood there staring absently out into the sky, her mind sluggishly gathering itself together for its daily functions.

"Leah-"

Her mind hadn't rekindled itself enough to be prepared for an intrusion on her silence. It wasn't a _loud _sound or anything- just a whisper preceded by a gentle knock on the door- but in Leah's state of morning detachment, even the slightest noise was triggering. In a flash, she spun on her heel and tensed into the defensive position she'd learned in training, hands balled into fists in front of her face, muscles taut, feet planted firmly.

It was her mother standing in the doorway. She stood up straight about as quickly as Leah had transitioned into defense mode, holding her hands above her head. "Whoa there! I surrender, I surrender!" she gasped jokingly. Leah's body gradually loosened: first her hands, then her legs, then her shoulders, until she dropped her stance completely and sheepishly hugged one arm around herself.

"…sorry. Reflex," she murmured.

"Well, let's not let those reflexes hurt your poor innocent mama." Elle smiled amusedly. "Didn't wanna wake you for breakfast, I figured I should let you sleep… I was just about to make lunch, so I thought I'd check in and see if you're up yet, Sleeping Beauty." She gave her daughter a wink. _Somebody's in a good mood, _Leah thought. A miniscule hint of a smile twitched at the corner of her mouth. "You've got a few options," Elle continued, leaning against the bedroom's doorframe. "You could help me throw lunch together- just bread and vegetable soup today; you could do me a favor and head down to the market to get some meat from the butcher; or, you could just stay here and relax."

"The market," Leah answered with hardly more than a moment of consideration. "Fresh air…"

Elle nodded her understanding. "Alright then. I used up the last bit of meat in last night's dinner, and I believe we're out of milk as well… You get dressed, I'll meet you downstairs. …aha, get it? Meet you? Like, _meat? _I'm sending you to the butcher's, to get _meat…"_

Leah touched her hand to her mouth to conceal a grin. "I'll be ready soon." Her mother gave her an intentionally shoddy version of the soldier salute before practically twirling out of her daughter's bedroom. These good moods of hers were far from rare, yet not exactly a daily or even weekly occurrence… Whenever they came about, the atmosphere of the entire home seemed to lift.

Shaking her head fondly, Leah skimmed through her closet for a casual outfit and stripped out of her nightclothes. Her eyes caught a glimpse of the town below as she pulled her head through the hole in her top. Nothing spectacular, but certainly a nice place to live… The people were friendly enough and usually willing to help out a neighbor in need. Of course there was the inevitable town gossip, but at least crime rates were low. …when she became a soldier, how many times could Leah expect to see this calm little town again? Chances were, not very often. The brief light-heartedness contracted from her mother's contagious cheeriness faded out immediately and Leah was back to her regular apathetic self.

She met her mother downstairs, where she received a short list of groceries and the money to pay for it. "Lunch should be ready in about, say, half an hour, 45 minutes. Think you can make it back by then?" Elle said. Leah nodded, finding it ridiculous that her mother even needed to ask. All she had to do was go downtown, ask for the meats on the list, grab a bottle of milk, and head back home… It would take 10 minutes to get there, 5 to complete the task at hand, and 10 more to return home. Not a problem.

Yet when she arrived in the marketplace, it became clear that perhaps she was mistaken. Leah had never cared too much for this part of the town… Always bustling and lively; not her type of place. There were fruit stands, merchants' stands, spice stands, and many others, with the addition of shops such as bookstores, bakeries, and flower shops. It was the bakery that Leah found herself stopped in front of. She had only taken a brief glance, and suddenly that glance took hold of her gaze and locked it in place. It was stuck glued to the person manning the front counter: smiling brightly, face and apron splotched with flour and dark hair pulled into a messy ponytail, was a lovely young woman by the name of Janie.

It had been years since Leah saw more of an instant's worth of this girl, and the two of them had never been close; nonetheless, the recognition was there, and it was strong enough to stop her in her tracks. After all, when Janie became an orphan five years ago, Leah's Uncle Jean and beloved Aunt Mikasa took her in and gave her guidance as if she was their own child. As foolish as she knew it was of her, Leah couldn't exactly deny that she felt rather… jealous of Janie. Of course, Mikasa doted on Leah more than any of the other children… But the way she treated her had always been like her favorite niece, her wannabe daughter. Not like an_ actual_ daughter, as she treated this woman in the bakery…

There was also the girl's relationship with Leah's cousin Dillon to take into account. The two were best friends, and Janie was endlessly supportive of the hot-headed loner; everyone that knew them could tell they belonged together. Annette had even once got Janie to admit she'd had feelings for the boy for quite a while. Leah's mind began to wander. Had they communicated since Dillon's graduation? Had they, perhaps, finally managed to realize their love for each other? …no. They couldn't have. Dillon was a soldier, a dedicated one at that, and soldiers didn't have time for love. Keith Shadis had said so…

But she had no reason to be thinking of these things. There was a time and place for that… It was unlike her to get off task, so she backed away from the bakery window and refocused on her destination.

The entire way to the butcher's shop, her mind was as uncharacteristically distracted as it had been when she spotted her aunt and uncle's sort-of-adopted daughter. Thoughts and questions she'd normally be perfectly capable of restraining- How was the couple down the street doing? Did anyone take in that one feral cat Annette always fed? The price of fruits had gone down- swirled around her head. Maybe it was because she had been reminded of her cousin who could very well be fighting a Titan at this instant, or because she hadn't slept well, or simply because of nostalgia upon returning home...

Regardless, she had to stop and take a long breather to clear her head. She closed her eyes tightly (despite being in the middle of the street) and wiped her mind of all unnecessary distractions, until it was empty of everything besides her focus- just the way she liked it- before continuing on.

At long last, Leah came to the outdoor shop easily identifiable as the butcher's, what with meats of all sorts hanging from the ceiling and packaged on the rows of shelves behind the counter_. _It stood a little ways away from the pasture in which the cattle, chickens, and pigs being raised for slaughter grazed freely, so the smell wasn't exactly pleasant in the area, but that never affected the quality of the meats so nobody really complained about the location. Although, that never stopped anyone, Leah not excluded, from absently covering their nose as they placed their order.

Take out the list, hand it to the butcher, and be on her way…. That was Leah's intent. She had already wasted too much time in her unexplainable daydreaming; she couldn't afford any more pointless dallying. She stood in silence for a few moments as the stand remained unattended. Her patience started to deplete as a minute passed, and by the time five more had gone by, irritation was starting to surface.

"…excuse me?" she called in a tone louder than was normal for her, but otherwise sounded indifferent. A few more seconds ticked by before the shop's back door flew open.

"M'bad, m'bad… _Real _sorry about the wait, ma'am, I was just uh- …well in all honesty, I was takin' a nap. Terribly sorry…"

Now, Leah wasn't a frequent visitor of the marketplace. She also wasn't as attentive to the people in her neighborhood, or the gossip they had to say about each other. But if there was one thing she knew, it was that this person was _not _the town butcher. The butcher was a big, _big _man- giant- with a lazy eye, and a bald head, and a constantly bloodied apron, and a deep booming voice. His terrifying appearance was misleading, for he was a friendly, well-loved man that had been dedicated and good at his job for the past ten-or-so years. If he left town, _everyone _would be talking about it. Even Leah with her distant personality would have picked up on it.

And yet… This person? He was _not _the butcher. They were big for their age- late teens, Leah estimated- not in the sense that he was _fat, _just that he had a sturdy build. Big-boned, one would say. Even so, they were still only about a third of the size of the butcher everyone knew. Both of his eyes were fully functional and hazel in color, with an absent sort of look in them that made someone want to knock on his head and ask if anyone was home. Unlike the bald butcher, he had a full head of unkempt brown hair. A few strands of straw stuck out of its shagginess, making Leah question where exactly he had been taking a nap. Freckles dotted the boy's sun-tanned cheeks with a few sprinkles on the bridge of his nose, giving him a dash of youth in his appearance despite most likely having already entered manhood. He wore no bloody apron, but instead a bluish shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, a vest that looked to be made out of remnants of a sack, and filthy pants that might have been jeans or even slacks at one point. Though completely scruffy, this strange boy was, undeniably and in his own special way, quite... handsome. There was almost something _feminine _about him. Maybe it was his overwhelming air of naivety?

Leah did not respond to his apology; only stood in silent questioning. Most people would have made the connection that she was confused as to who he was, but that possibility flew right over this young man's head. He stood just as silently as Leah (though a great deal more awkwardly), wearing an apologetic and increasingly uncomfortable smile and repeatedly glancing over his shoulder as if he thought she was staring at something behind him.

Finally_, _the gears started to turn in his head and the reason behind her hesitation dawned on him. _"Oh! _Ya must not know me! Right, right, m'bad! Again!" he exclaimed, the grin on his face widening. "Dad's been feelin' under the weather, so I thought I'd run shop for him today! Normally I work behind the scenes, with the animals 'n everything… Dad handles the business; says I ain't got good enough people skills. But what're ya gonna do, y'know? Can't complain." He shrugged with an airy smile on his face, and then jumped as if he'd just remembered something major. "I'm Pat, by the way! Pat Adkins." He held out his hand for Leah to shake; she pressed her grocery list into it instead. "Wh- oh! Gotcha, gotcha… Okay, let's see what we got here. Two pounds o' ground beef…."

The next few minutes were practically excruciating. The boy- Pat, he said his name was- scrutinized the list and read everything out loud, then repeated it over and over like a preschooler practicing their new reading skills. When he wasn't murmuring weights of meats under his breath, he was chattering senselessly, about things Leah couldn't care about nor comprehend half the time. As increasingly agitated as she was feeling, she couldn't deny the spark of pity she felt stir within her as she inattentively watched Pat dart around the little shop. Anyone could tell he was new to this job, as he repeatedly put back things he'd taken off of shelves, and struggled with the scales, and occasionally cut himself on the packaging materials or the knife he used to slice the meats. Every time he messed up, he'd flash a sorry smile Leah's way and apologize, even if he had been in the middle of a sentence that she hadn't been listening to anyway.

At least fifteen minutes had passed by the time Pat read through the list again, glancing from it to the meats he'd lined on the counter, then grabbed a bottle of milk from the icebox in the corner and triumphantly set it down beside Leah's order. "Annnnnd there ya go!" he declared with a big smile on his face. He looked a little _too _proud, considering all he had done was a very shoddy version of the job he had volunteered to do. "…y'know, you're real nice," he commented, sticking the finger that had been the victim of repeated slices into his mouth and using the other hand to move all the meats into a bag for his customer.

"…nice?" Leah repeated incredulously.

"Yeh, ya really are. I been doin' this ever since yesterday, and everybody's gotten real mad at me. Told me to shut up halfway through my stories, yelled at me to hurry it up… Couple people even smacked me 'cause I got their order wrong. But you just been standin' there listenin' to me ramble on… Or, y'know, not listenin'. I get it if ya blocked me out." Leah's heart gave a tug at how casually Pat added that. He must have been used to being ignored… Now she felt a little guilty. "Either way, you've just let me talk till my tongue almost fell off, and didn't scold me one bit. 'S the nicest thing you coulda done."

Leah had no words for him; she only gazed off to the side until he set a loaded bag onto the counter. Pay, take the bag, and be on her way… It was a simple task, and she had no intention of not doing it.

When she refocused, she found that Pat was staring at her curiously. It made her jump a little bit. "…what?" she muttered. For a second she wondered if he was waiting for her to pay, but realized that he'd never given her a price. Not that she recalled hearing, at least…

Pat tilted his head the other way. "Oh, nothin', iss just… Y'look real familiar. What's yer name?"

"…Leah," she answered tentatively, slowly reaching out to grab the bag and the bottle.

"Leaaaaaah, what? 'Less yer name is Lee Uh…" Pat giggled at his own feeble joke.

"Arlert." She grasped the bag's handle and swiftly added the bottle of milk to its contents. She almost had half a mind to just drop a random amount of money on the counter and go…

Recognition exploded across Pat's features. "Arlert! You related to that one real pretty girl? Ann-somethin'… The one every guy 'round here's got their eye on?"

A red-hot feeling of bitterness leaped into Leah's chest. For whatever childish reason, now she considered just taking her groceries and hurrying home without paying a cent. She narrowed her eyes. "She's my sister. Do you also have your eye on her?" she spat in a low irate tone.

Pat let out a noise that started as a pig-like snort, transitioned into a wheeze like a donkey's whinny, and then settled into a perfectly human laugh that was actually rather pleasing to the ears. "Ya gotta be jokin'! Naw, I don't give a horse's _butt _'bout her. I mean, I'm sure she's plenty nice, just not my type…" He wiped at the corner of one eye with his uninjured pointer finger, condensing his laughter into subtle chuckling. Once he recovered himself completely, though, and noticed that Leah was practically boiling, he froze. "Hey, uh, 'm sorry… Are you like, jealous o' your sis or something…?"

"No," Leah snapped immediately. Why would she be _jealous _of Annette? She had nothing that she wanted. At least, nothing she was conscious of wanting…

"Well, ya shouldn't be," Pat insisted, as if Leah had said that she _was. _"She's really pretty, but… You are too." There was something in his tone, some sincerity and warmth, that gave him an entirely different demeanor for that moment. Leah felt an unrestrained blush flood across her cheeks. How could he say that so confidently to a total stranger?! The only people she had ever heard compliment her that way had been her family members. So what was this scatterbrained butcher's son doing, calling her pretty so boldly? The utter _nerve…_

"How much" Leah asked quickly. Pat looked dumbfounded.

"Like, how pretty are you? Well, I'd say-"

_"No," _Leah interjected harshly, staring down at her feet to avoid the boy's eye. If she let that conversation progress any further, she really _would _up and run off. "How much for the meat and the milk. How much money."

For a moment, Pat only let out a short laugh and stood there shaking his head at his own misunderstanding. But then he paused, and the smile on his face shrunk. "…shit…" he cussed. He awkwardly rubbed the back of his head, shaking a few pieces of straw loose onto the floor. "I was uh, supposed to be addin' up the prices as I went along…" he confessed. A nervous sweat broke out on his brow. "I could go back and- nah, that'd take too long… You can just, uh, take it!" he decided. "Free o' charge, my treat."

"…won't you get in trouble?" Leah reasoned, not actually as concerned as she made it seem. Or perhaps she didn't realize how concerned she actually was, and let her true worry slip into her tone.

"Not if my dad don't find out!" Pat grinned, not thinking for a moment that there was any way his father _could _find out. Which, of course, there was. His grin softened a tiny bit. "Consider it a thank-you for bein' the first human to let me talk without cuttin' me off. Guess there's a reason the cows're my only friends, but uh…" He shook his head and returned his smile to its original brightness. "Take care, Leah Arlert. Will I see ya 'round here again?"

"…I don't know," Leah murmured honestly. With the anticipation in Pat's tone, it was evident that he had been wanting to hear a "yes." An icy feeling crept about Leah's chest as she realized that he had perhaps been proposing friendship to her. She shuddered at the very thought of it; she had spoken to him, what, three times? Wanting to be friends, which was cliché in itself, on such short of notice would just be _stupid. _Was he honestly that oblivious and desperate? …something told her that he truly was. She didn't doubt that he wasn't exaggerating when he said his only friends were cows_…_

Stonehearted as she was, Leah admitted that she pitied him. So she dumped a couple of the coins her mother had provided her with onto the counter before hugging the bag to her chest and running off in the direction of her house. She pretended she didn't feel Pat gazing after her.

_"There_ you are!" Elle exclaimed the moment Leah entered the dining room on her way to the kitchen. Leah was shocked to see that everyone had already gathered around the table; had she really been gone that long? "I didn't want to start without you, but Toby had already served himself and I didn't feel like beating his butt today, so I just gathered everyone…" Tobias grinned widely at Leah with a mouthful of bread. She only stared at him, wiping the grin right off his face and causing him to break their eye contact. "Here, I'll help you put everything away," Elle offered, snapping Leah's attention away from petrifying her little brother. She shuffled into the kitchen in her mother's tow.

"Sorry I took so long… Got caught up talking to the butcher's son," Leah murmured, heaving open the icebox. "…or should I say, being talked to by the butcher's son," she corrected herself.

She got an unexplainable feeling of unease as she reached for the bottle of milk so she could put it away. Glancing over her shoulder, she found that this was because her mother was staring at her peculiarly, paused in the middle of retrieving a package of meat from the bag. Her eyebrows were raised but also scrunched together, creating a look of puzzlement as if Leah had just told her a tale of a meowing dog she'd encountered on her way home. "…what?" Leah urged, furrowing her own eyebrows in concern.

Gradually, her mother unfroze herself and set the packages inside the icebox. "Honey, Mr. Adkins doesn't _have _a son." Now it was Leah's turn to look flabbergasted.

"…yes, he does… He was running the shop today…" What was going on? Surely she hadn't imagined the entire thing? Sure, training for the military worked at a person, but it didn't make them _lose their mind… _Especially not someone like Leah.

Elle took the bottle of milk out of her confused daughter's hands and placed it in the corner of the freezer. "I mean, yes, Patricia's a little rough around the edges, but she's not a _boy."_

It was a good thing she wasn't still holding the bottle, because if she had been, it would have shattered to the ground and spilled across the floor. Leah felt as if she had just taken a blow to the abdomen. She managed to keep up her shield of apathy, but on the inside, she was starting to panic. How could she be so _stupid?! _So unobservant?! Granted, she wasn't exactly attentive toward people she didn't have much regard for, but she was still a perceptive person. It hadn't even occurred to her that "Pat" could be a nickname, and even if it had, she would have assumed it was short for _Patrick. _She knew she got a feminine vibe from him, yes, though she hadn't thought for a moment that that was because he was _female. _Not a "he" at all. How could she have made such a drastic, _embarrassing _mistake…?! Her cheeks burned red.

"…oh," was all she could bring herself to utter. She brought her hand to her mouth as her mother continued to put away the groceries. Why on Earth was she getting so worked up about this? So she had mistaken a very masculine girl for a young man. Not a big deal, anyone else would have made the error… It wasn't like this person was anyone significant, or like she would even see him- her, again. So why was she- ….oh, no.

An absolutely ridiculous notion tugged at Leah's attention. She clamped her hand harder over her mouth, digging her nails into her cheek; why would she even _consider _such a thing?! Maybe she _had _lost her mind. Her heart hammered faster as she mentally quarreled with herself, insisting that there was some other, _any _other explanation than that. …she couldn't keep it in. She needed an answer, and in order to gain one, she had to confide in someone else.

"…Mom? What… What does it feel like," she gulped, forcing the words out, "to be in love?" She hoped that she was overestimating her mother's obliviousness, and that she wouldn't put two and two together, but she knew it was a long shot. Elle was not stupid, especially when it came to her kids.

"Hm?" She stood up straight, closing the icebox and folding up the now empty bag to be reused at another time. "Oh, honey, you're asking the wrong person… Here I was dead sure Marco Bodt was the love of my life, when everyone but me could tell I was actually in love with your father."

Leah bit her lip. Perhaps she had accidentally tread into unwelcome territory, if her mother was going to bring up Marco Bodt… Still, she didn't seem affected by mentioning him. It _had _been at least twenty years; maybe she had gotten over his death in a sense. "But, you know what it feels like now, yes?"

"True, true. I guess I'm just making up excuses." She chuckled and tweaked her daughter's ear. "Not that I don't _want _to explain it to you, it's just… Complicated." She leaned against the counter, pulling Leah to her side by her arm, and wrapped her arm around her small yet strong shoulders. "How do I put this… A lot of people say that when you love someone, you know it straight away. But, that's not always true. At least, you aren't always _consciously _aware of it from the start… Sometimes, it takes a while for you to realize it. If you think you're in love with someone, and the thought keeps coming back no matter how many times you try to deny it… Then chances are, you _are _in love with them."

"What are the symptoms?" Leah urged quietly. Elle laughed.

"You say that like love's an illness. But, I can't say there aren't any…" She tilted her head thoughtfully. "When you're with the person you love, you _always _feel happy. Always. They can brighten up your day just by existing. Even when you're mad at them, you want them to be happy… 'Cause underneath your anger, there's some guilt hiding. Because you don't ever want to make them upset, or be upset with them. When they're hurt, you feel it too, and vice versa.

"You feel like you can be yourself around them, you're confident they won't judge you… They just make you feel so comfortable, so secure. You want to be around them all the time, you want to hold them and keep them safe…" She closed her eyes and smiled airily.

Well, by those terms, there was no such thing as "love at first sight." Surely that deep connection took time to develop… Leah needed to know what _immediate _love felt like. "…are there any _physical _symptoms?"

"Oh, yes, for sure. Your heart gets all fluttery, and your whole body feels warm. Your face'll heat up, and your skin will crawl- in a good way. You'll get the random urge to smile, and your chest just gets this… feeling…" Elle explained. She opened one eye and glanced into the dining room, where her husband was wiping crumbs off of Wolfram's cheek. Her smile softened. "So, enlighten me, honey: who do you think you're in love with?"

Blushing faintly, Leah stared unseeingly down at the floor and shrugged her mother's arm away. "I'm going to my room," she whispered, and she hurried out of the room then practically stumbled up the stairs.

She threw herself face-first onto her bed the moment she stepped into her bedroom. This was bad; no, this was _catastrophic. _Her mother had perfectly described how she felt when Pat asked her if she would see her around again, right down to the unexplainable feeling in her chest. But that wasn't love, right? The symptoms were misleading, and it _wasn't love. _That had to be it. Soldiers didn't fall in love, and Leah was _far _from an exception. She had hardened her heart too much to let someone so significant in. Another _woman, _at that…

The issue of marriage equality had been terminated upon the initial defeat of humanity; the person you married seemed an insignificant thing to argue for, considering most people were just struggling to get by in their lives. Still, Leah couldn't help but wonder _why _it had once been an issue. Exactly what was so sinful about being with the same sex? Even now, it seemed uncommon to see such a couple. Her cousin Dillon _did _cycle through quite a few boyfriends; however, science said that Dillon was technically a woman, and thus "straight." And yes, Janie was in love with Dillon even though she knew he was biologically not male, but he wasn't dating her… So besides him, there was nobody Leah could think of…

A memory from a few years back suddenly tugged at her recollection. She had been unable to sleep while her parents were having a grown-up party downstairs. Not meaning to intrude, but also not keen on sitting up in bed for hours, she eavesdropped from the top of the stairs. One of the adults had brought up the topic of old crushes, and with their honesty heightened by the influence of alcohol, each of them answered truthfully. As it turned out, _all _of them had harbored feelings for a friend of the same gender at one point in their younger years. Her mother liked her best friend Sasha Braus, her father liked Eren Jaeger, Eren had the _slightest _crush on Lance Corporal Levi… The conversation had ended on a sour note when somebody asked Jean if Marco had truly been nothing more than his best friend, at which his face darkened and he had to leave the room to grab another beer.

The scene shattered there in Leah's mind as she blinked it away, returning her brain to darkness. What was she doing, contemplating these things? The problem was not the possibility of loving another woman: the problem was the possibility of falling in love of at _all. _Keith Shadis's words overpowered the memory of Elle and Armin Arlert joyously announcing their former feelings for their best friends: _"Don't fall in love, kid. Love's a hindrance: only makes you weak, and gets in the way." _

It was absurd to think she'd _be in love _with the butcher's son- daughter- after only having met them this morning… Absolutely absurd… Yes, she'd given her, her order free of charge, but that wasn't anything like a gesture of love: only blind kindness. Love at first sight was a myth, and this Pat Adkins person was _far _from the person of her dreams (if she even had one to begin with). She wasn't particularly pleasing to the eye, she was clumsy and talkative and slow in the head, she worked in a butcher's shop and _talked to their cows… _….but she never stopped smiling, even when she was embarrassed. She was friendly- too much for her own good- and also lonely. Besides: love worked in strange ways. Even Leah knew that.

Don't fall in love, kid. Love's a hindrance: only makes you weak, and gets in the way. Don't fall in love… A hindrance… Makes you weak…. Gets in the way…. If falling in love always made a person's mind this muddled, she completely understood where Instructor Keith was coming from. She would completely wipe Patricia Adkins from her mind and avoid crossing paths with her for the rest of her life; she made it a personal vow.

But aren't vows only made to be broken?


	8. Chapter 7

Leah slept in late again the next morning. She had spent the majority of the night tossing and turning, fighting off thoughts that were roused by late-night sentiments. Pat's words- the ones she had listened to- played back in her head on a loop, so loudly that it was almost as if she was right there in the room with her. Picking apart the way that her country accent created a subtle drawl on her words, and hearing it over and over in her head was… strangely pleasant. And the fact that she felt her heart fluttering at the image of Pat Adkin's freckled face and the memory of her tenor-sounding voice just made Leah increasingly frustrated. _This isn't love, this isn't love, this isn't love, _she insisted with her face smothered in her pillow. _I'm just tired and delusional…_

She awoke with a numbing headache and an awful case of bed-head. Her intent was to grab a bite to eat, greet her family, then return to bed for a refreshing mid-morning nap; however, a chorus of laughter and voices greeted her in the stairwell and let her know straight away that it would not be a quiet morning. She inhaled deeply through her nose, and forced herself to enter the living room.

She expected to find the source of the commotion to be her parents in one of their good moods- perhaps they were being disgustingly romantic as they often liked to do, creating a ruckus from their children (even Annette would tease them when they gushed over each other). She wouldn't have been surprised if the sight before her wasn't _exactly _along those lines… But what she actually walked in on made her stop in shock and widen her eyes.

A young man of about 25 was sitting in the middle of the floor with a squirming Tobias in his lap. He would have stood out boldly even if he _didn't _have Leah's 9-year-old brother locked in a headlock, since he had a head of wild red hair. The noise was coming entirely from the two of them, with the addition of blithe laughter from onlookers Elle and Wolfram.

"You're a _brat, _kid! An all around _brat!" _the red-headed man was accusing Tobias with a huge grin on his face.

"Well you're a _jerk, _Uncle Malcolm! An all around _jerk!" _Tobias retorted between frantic giggles.

The man happened to glance up then, and caught Leah's eye in doing so. His eyes, the exact grayish-teal shade as her Aunt Calynn's… "…hello, Uncle Malcolm," Leah greeted before he got the chance to. In most cases, she would have waited for him to speak up first, but it had been a while since she had seen her mother's only younger brother. Her sentiments were naturally a bit distorted.

"Oh, sweet lord up above, _Leah," _Malcolm Gracada gasped overdramatically, playfully shoving Tobias off his lap and climbing to his feet. "Every time I've come by here, expecting to see my sweet little niece, you've been off at the camps! Nobody told me I'd finally be seeing you today." He shot an accusing (yet still affectionate) glare at his sister, who only grinned and winked at him.

Leah remained characteristically speechless. This time, at least, she had an excuse: her relationship with her uncle was… minimal. Malcolm had only been 9 years old when Annette was born, and as a result the two of them were inseparable whenever they were near each other. Toby had a personality similar to Malcolm's, so they got along excellently, and little Wolfram was impossible not to love, which left Fritz and Leah as the inevitable least favorites. It wasn't as if she had anything _against _her uncle… He just wasn't even close to being included on her list of people she could hold a conversation with.

"…so, where's Ann at?" Malcolm asked in order to avoid an awkward silence. He gasped and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, a playful glint in his eyes. "Is she with Lex? _Tell _me she's with Lex." That was another thing that brought him and Annette closer: they were mutual close friends of Lexus Habernathy.

"She's at the _market, _you dog," Elle answered for him. She had originally just been passing through the room, but stopped to watch the wrestling match going on between her son and her brother. Now, she heaved Wolfram into her arms and resumed heading toward her destination. "And I'd very much appreciate it if you stop deciding that my daughter's having some secret love affair with her best friend," she added as she passed. A smile was on her face despite her warning words.

"I'm Lex's _best friend, _Ellie. You think he doesn't tell me things?"

Elle paused. "…what do you mean by _things?"_

Malcolm flapped his hand dismissively. "You know how he's all absent-minded and everything… Sometimes, he lets slip that he thinks Ann is _cute, _and really _nice, _and that it just makes him so _mad _that those guys are all over her."

"That doesn't necessarily mean he has a thing for her, Mal. He's probably just saying those things as her caring best friend," Elle reasoned.

"You make it sound like you _wish _he didn't think of her that way. I thought you _liked _Lex? Wouldn't you be okay with him as a son-in-law?"

"Oh, I love the kid to death. Isn't a nicer young man in the world, to be honest," Elle agreed, starting to walk again. She flashed a grin over her shoulder. "I just don't want to have _anyone _as a son-in-law yet. I'm too young," she teased.

Leah's stomach was starting to churn. Were such discussions _really _necessary? Annette was still young, too young to be thinking of _marriage… _And yet everything just _had _to be about love, about romance. Revolting. She was just about to remove herself from the middle of the conversation when Malcolm spoke up again. "Welp, I should get going… Gotta get ready for work soon." Malcolm tended the bar at the town's pub: a fitting profession for someone that acted so true to his Irish heritage in more ways than one. "I'm working late tonight, sooo, I won't be able to come over for dinner… I'll tell the old man, though. Fingers crossed that he remembers."

Leah nodded (although it was uncertain as to whether he was talking to her, Elle, or just everyone within listening distance). "You mean Grandpa's gonna come over tonight?" Wolfram exclaimed with a gasp. Leah felt her heart sink at the excitement in the little boy's eyes. If he was looking forward to a visit from their grandfather as much as it seems, then he was going to be crushingly disappointed that evening. The entire family could cross all their fingers and toes, hoping that he would remember that Malcolm told him that there was a family gathering he needed to go to, and it would still be futile. The Gracada man's mental stability had commenced its downward tumble when his wife died, and he was too distraught to even care for himself. He was so forgone, in fact, that he had to leave Malcolm to be raised by his neighbors for a couple years, and for this reason his son only called him Mr. Fergus (or, as of recently, 'the old man'). Though he had improved considerably over the years- living with his son, keeping up to date with his daughters and grandkids- old age stopped his recovery short, and now it was rare for him to remember how to read a clock.

His family remained optimistic nonetheless. "Most likely, mhm!" Elle answered her youngest son with a tap on the nose. Leah shook her head subtly, knowing better than to get her hopes up.

She was right. Everyone showed up at that evening's celebratory dinner, even Sasha Braus and her husband, _except _for their grandfather. Wolfram and Tobias wore identical pouts on their faces for at least five minutes after their mother admitted that perhaps Grandpa _wasn't _coming over. She knew that he wasn't being spiteful or anything, his Alzheimer's had just robbed him of the memory of Malcolm letting him know there was a dinner to go to tonight… But she wasn't so sure Wolfram and Tobias understood that.

It had become tradition to throw a little celebration whenever any of the kids were visiting from training, the night before they would be departing again. The entire family was invited, non-biological aunts and uncles not excluded. For this particular occasion, Sasha Braus was disheartened to hear that Fritz would not be present: although one would expect her polite, optimistic attitude to clash with the boy's standoffish one, the pair of non-biological aunt and nephew actually shared a strangely close bond. Still, his absence did not hinder her decision to come: one because she never turned down invitations from her best friend, two because she simply loved family get-togethers.

Sasha _adored _children, but she and her husband (a jokester named Connie Springer) refused to have any of their own and alternatively settled for pet dogs. The reason behind their permanent abstinence was straightforward: the couple had never been an actual _couple, _per se, but instead a pair of lifelong best friends that decided to get married, quote, "for the hell of it." Their marital status was built off of no romance besides a platonic love.

Leah, waiting for Donovan to wrap up the conversation he was having with Tobias, absently watched the two bicker over seating arrangements and then laugh it off. Not in the way a loving married couple would, but like a couple of pals. It then came to her attention that the two of them were still soldiers, ready to fight whenever they were called on. Keith's advice echoed ominously from the recesses of her mind. Two soldiers, married but not in love… Perhaps romance truly _didn't _belong in the life of a soldier.

Leah jumped when her shin was abruptly met with a shot of pain from a sudden kick. "Ouch, what the-?!"

"Earth to Sis! Don's talkin' to you," Tobias called from across the table. Sure enough, when Leah focused back on reality, she found her cousin staring at her expectantly.

"…sorry. What did you say?"

There was a problem with the oven, so Elle (with assistance from Calynn) was hung up in the kitchen while everyone chatted and mingled. Leah noticed out of the corner of her eye that Wolfram had crawled onto Levi's lap and was rambling ecstatically about a book Armin had recently read to him. Wolfram positively adored his Uncle Levi, immensely more so than even Leah did, and Levi doted on him in return. This wouldn't be so surprising- after all, everyone loved little Wolfram, except that the affectionate gazes and subtle warm smiles Levi aimed at the boy were otherwise reserved only for his wife and own children. As the years went by and the mysterious bond between the two of them grew stronger yet, Leah occasionally found herself wondering just what exactly made them so close. But a chill shivered through her body as she recalled that Wolfram had came into this world on the day that Levi's precious youngest son had left it. Perhaps Levi had been using Wolfram in attempt to fill that unfixable void… It was a saddening thought that Leah, and everyone else to whom it occurred, didn't like to dwell on. She peeled her eyes away from them and focused on talking to Don.

Jean and Mikasa arrived a little later than everyone else, as they had advised ahead of time that they would. "Sorry we're late. We had some stuff to do," Jean announced upon their arrival. Leah perked up immediately; she hadn't seen her Aunt Mikasa since the last time she had been home, at the beginning of the year. However, when her eyes landed on the Asian woman, her subtle eager smile slipped right off her face.

Something was… wrong. Mikasa was hugging onto Jean's arm like a clingy young child afraid of being separated from their mother. Normally when together in public, they (as per Mikasa's preference) stood approximately side-by-side, almost as if they were strangers to each other, holding hands at the very most. Her gaze was distant, which was nothing out of the ordinary in itself, except that she was openly refusing to meet anyone's eye. Usually at these sort of gatherings, she would always search for Leah and Eren and at least spare a glance at everyone else. Her long black hair (once short like Leah's, but she had grown it out ever since her wedding) was pulled into a ponytail, even though she _always _left it down. Her outfit was unusual, as well: she wore a loose-fitting blouse under a sweater that seemed two sizes too large. A bit more feminine of an attire than anyone was used to Mikasa wearing… What was going on?

Before anyone could comment, Elle poked her head in the room and announced that dinner was ready. Soon enough, everyone was gathered around the table and digging into their meal. Nobody seemed to regard Mikasa's strange behavior.

"No Malcolm tonight?" Calynn commented as she served herself some rice.

"Nope, he couldn't make it… He's working the bar tonight," Elle answered.

"Aw, that's a shame… I really like your brother," Sasha chimed in as she scooped as much mashed potatoes as she could into her spoon.

"Oh, so you're a cougar now? Y'know, I hear he's single," Connie teased his wife. Sasha squealed.

"You're a jerk, Connie… He may be single, but _I _am not."

Connie pursed his lips. "And what a pity that is for the both of us." Everyone laughed; the atmosphere became lighthearted and remained that way for the rest of the evening.

But Leah was unaffected by the mirth of everyone around her. Well, not _everyone; _there was one other person sharing in her lack of cheer, and that was Mikasa. She picked at her food uninterestedly, taking the occasional tiny bite, and stared down at her plate while making eye contact with nobody. Leah was aware of the people around her, but she paid no regard to them. It was as if they were enclosed in a glass case: present, but unreachable and easy to ignore. Mikasa was the only person in her domain, the only one she saw clearly in real time. Her focus was aimed totally on Mikasa, and yet she didn't even acknowledge her stare; just kept on hugging her sweater against her body and practically making herself disappear. Leah was readying herself to call out to her aunt, but it seemed Jean had beaten her to it. He leaned over just as Leah parted her lips to speak and whispered something in his wife's ear. For the first time that night, a sign of life flickered in Mikasa's misty gray eyes, and she gave a nod to her head.

Jean cleared his throat unnecessarily loudly. "Everyone… We have an announcement to make."

The room fell silent, smiles still on everyone's faces while their curiosities were peaked. Jean (smiling broadly himself) stared expectantly at Mikasa. Seconds ticked by, and suddenly the cheery atmosphere became a bit tense and awkward. "…babe? D'you want me to tell them?" Jean murmured, glancing almost apologetically at the others as his wife continued to sit in a detached silence.

"No," Mikasa insisted immediately. She finally peeled her eyes away from her basically untouched plate. Her distant, hazy eyes cleared up as she took a deep breath and made sure to meet the gaze of each person at the table before speaking. She squeezed Jean's hand under the table; the gesture went unnoticed by everyone except for Leah. Her alarm only increased.

"…I'm… pregnant," Mikasa finally forced out.

Shock reverberated about the room like a bolt of lightning. Eren spit out his drink across the table (but thankfully not on anybody or their food); Connie choked on the piece of bread he'd been eating and needed Sasha to smack him hard on the back; just about everyone else drew in surprised gasps. Armin pulled himself together, enough to speak, at least, the quickest. "…oh my _god, _Mikasa…! Jean…! Congratulations!" he breathed.

A chorus of excited congratulations echoed from the other adults at the table (and Annette) as everyone regained themselves. Eren was the last to murmur his congrats, but that wasn't all he had to say. "…Jean, do you even _like _kids?"

He had verbalized the exact question that had immediately crossed Leah's mind. That is, one of _many _questions that had instantaneously streamed through her brain upon hearing those two unbelievable words leave her aunt's mouth. Her entire body was numb with incredulity. Wasn't she content caring for Janie for three years, and having nieces and nephews? It had always seemed so… Mikasa wasn't a _mother, _she was a _soldier._ Absolutely everything was wrong with this situation. The shock was too heavy for Leah to clearly comprehend any one thought.

She vaguely acknowledged Jean's response. His smile had faltered slightly, but he answered calmly: "In general? Nah, not really… Most of them are brats. But… I like kids that I can get close to. I'd take Wolfie home in a heartbeat," he winked at the young boy, and earned a giggle from him, "and I've got no problem with any of his siblings or any of Levi and Kay's kids. If I had some of my own, well… I can't exactly not like them, can I? I'm not _that _indecent of a guy."

Eren seemed satisfied with that answer; he smiled, and said "Congrats" once more in a more confident tone. But Leah was _not _satisfied. She was stunned, appalled, incredulous. Mikasa had dedicated her life to the military, not to motherhood. She was worth a hundred soldiers; didn't she realize what a blow her absence would cause to the Scouting Legion? How could she possibly be so _selfish? _It wasn't even like she loved Jean…

"Plus," Jean began to add, "Mikasa's the last surviving Oriental. I just figured her mother's genes needed to be passed down at least one more generation." He smiled at his wife, and she stared back at him with an expression that made Leah's stomach churn. She was subtly smiling, with a twinkle in her eye… Leah had seen that look passed between her parents, and Levi and Calynn, and even between her sister and Lexus. It was made up of pure, true love.

Leah got to her feet. Not loudly, not dramatically; just quickly. Without dismissing herself or even saying a word at all, she turned away from the table and hurried out of the room, leaving silence in her wake.

Her head was spinning, her heart was pounding unnaturally wildly. She collapsed onto the bottom step in the stairway and buried her face in her hands. _"Don't fall in love, kid." "She's really pretty, but… You are too." "…I'm… pregnant." _Words from Keith, Pat, and Mikasa all muddled together in her mind. But why? Surely they had nothing in common… She wasn't in love with Pat, and Mikasa wasn't in love with Jean, nor was she having a _baby… _This was all just a big, confusing nightmare… If she closed her eyes tight enough, pinched herself hard enough, she would wake up in her dorm at the camps and get ready to come home…

"Leah…"

Her eyes flew open and she gasped sharply for breath. She hadn't even realized she had stopped breathing. She continued to stare at nothing, ignoring whoever had approached her. It sounded like Mikasa, but it couldn't be… She didn't want to talk to Mikasa right now, she was in a state of shock because of her. Besides, it wasn't like Mikasa had any regard for her anyway… She was having a baby, a child of her own, why would she care about Leah anymore?

_"Leah." _Now Mikasa was sitting beside her on the step, gently resting a hand on her back. Leah flinched at her touch. "…Leah…" Mikasa said yet again, softer this time. "What's wrong?"

Leah remained silent. This would have been completely normal for her, if she was talking to anyone _but _her Aunt Mikasa. Still, Mikasa knew her well enough that she was certain she would eventually cave if they sat in silence for long enough. Just as predicted, after at least two minutes of terrible silence, Leah glanced up at her aunt and sighed quietly. "…why."

Mikasa needn't ask what she was referring to; she could tell. "…I'm getting older. This was one of my last chances. If I turned it down, I have a feeling I would have regretted it."

"What are you going to do about the Scouting Legion?" Leah asked, tears welling up in her eyes. She used all of her cracked willpower to keep them from spilling.

"Jean and I have talked about it," she told her in her calm, monotone voice. "He's going to continue to serve for a year after I have the baby. After that year is over, we're going to switch: he opted to be the stay-at-home parent, and I will return to the Scouting Legion."

It was a good plan, Leah couldn't deny. But her heart still ached. "…do you love Uncle Jean?" she pressed in a whisper.

Mikasa paused. She furrowed her eyebrows, clearly deep in thought; anywhere from thirty seconds to two minutes passed before she finally spoke up. "My entire life, for the longest time, revolved around killing and fighting," she began slowly. "Ever since I became an orphan, my emotions… were distorted. Still existent, thanks to the kindness the Jaegers showed me, but they could hardly be considered _human. _Eren, then my new brother, was someone very important to me. I wanted, _needed _him to be safe. But that was about where my compassion ended." She closed her eyes lightly. "I was ruthless, and heartless. I never hesitated to kill anyone or anything that got in my way. I was a monster, concerned only with protecting Eren and destroying my enemies. It's always been said that I have the strength of 100 soldiers... This was a label that neither humbled me nor filled me with pride: that power just seemed to be a gift that was necessary in achieving my dark goals.

"Your Uncle Jean… He had had a hopeless crush on me from the start. Told me I had the most beautiful long black hair he had ever seen… He was devastated when I cut it short." She absently fiddled with her dark locks. "Of course, I couldn't care less: romance was completely out of the question, something I did not include in my dull range of compassion. He eventually gave up on his flirtations, but he still protected me." She finally reopened her eyes, and Leah noticed affectionate warmth flickering in her gray irises. The faintest hint of a smile graced her lips. "He can be credited with saving my life more than once… It seemed he only liked to boast that he had saved the life of the most valuable soldier, but, I know realize that there was some underlying love behind his heroism."

Leah expected this to be where Mikasa ended her speech. It was rare enough for her to answer anything with more than a couple of sentences, let alone an extensive response like this… She thought she would add something along the lines of, "So yes, I do love my husband." Yet she continued on.

"After humanity finally triumphed over the Titans, I felt… empty. Hollow. My purpose in life had been to kill the Titans, my only specialty had been cutting up flesh, and now… I had nothing to live for. I, along with Eren, continued to train. Eren because he was preparing for the Titans' return, I in attempt to fill that void inside of me. I couldn't adapt to a normal life; I wasn't a normal woman. I was a killing machine. …Jean was another soldier that kept training, and so was your Uncle Levi, but… Levi had gotten married. Settled down. And soon, so had your parents. They had children, started their own families; they found a new purpose for living… But I could not break away from the life of a soldier.

"Years had passed at this point. You were a baby, not quite a year old yet… I had started converting the love I had for Eren, from the reason I sought to protect him, into legitimate affection. Being able to channel that emotion made me begin to feel ever-so-slightly more human. I spent more time with your parents, learned how to cook better meals for Eren and myself, taught myself how to knit…" She paused briefly. "And I accepted Jean's invitations to go out with him, though at the time I didn't view the outings as dates. He certainly did, though… Seemed to believe he and I were an item. I neither agreed, nor denied this claim.

"One day, I had been babysitting you and your sister while your parents went out for their anniversary. Jean stopped by; he was looking for your mother, for whatever reason. I informed him that she was out, but he opted to stay nonetheless. Help me watch the two of you… Honestly, I could tell he just wanted to spend time with me. It was a slight nuisance at the time, though looking back, it was… flattering. After a while, he tucked Annette into bed while I cradled you in my arms. I never wanted to put you down; you have always been my favorite." Mikasa winked at Leah and gently tweaked her cheek. Leah almost smiled. "He sat down next to me on the sofa, and stretched his arms with a yawn. Being the pathetically cheesy flirt that he is, he let one arm fall to his side while wrapping the other around my shoulders. I paid him no mind, despite that he was obviously attempting to make eye contact. But even I had to cave under that stare… So I spared him a glance.

"'We should get married,' he said. Just like that. I had never agreed to being his lover, he had only managed to steal one kiss from me, and yet there he was, suggesting marriage. He must have been out of his mind. Of course, that only made me crazier… Because I accepted. 'Alright,' I told him. Plain as day."

Leah sat in disbelief, her eyebrows raised and mouth agape just slightly. She didn't expect anything dramatic from her aunt; it actually seemed perfectly fitting that she would respond to a proposal so casually, if she were to accept at all. However, _Jean _was all for the romance, and one would think he would make sure his proposal was as big and bold as possible. He wasn't exactly a sentimental man, but he was at least the type to acknowledge the significance of asking the girl he loved to marry him, and treat it as such.

"...why?" In all honesty, Leah wasn't quite sure _what _she was questioning. Why Mikasa said yes, why Jean proposed so rashly… According to Mikasa's intuition, it was mostly the former on her mind.

"I suppose I felt that marriage was something normal human women did. Everyone around me, everyone I cared about, seemed to have settled down with a husband or wife. The only person that had not was Eren, and even I will admit that he was- still is," she added reluctantly, "a lost cause. And if Jean thought he loved me enough to be my husband, it would only be heartless of me to reject him. I wished to make myself feel as much compassion and empathy as I could."

It occurred to Leah that such emotions could not be forced upon someone; that would only make them artificial. But of course, she said nothing, because what did she know? Surely the persistent denial she harbored against her own feelings was no better than anything her aunt had felt years ago. "After accepting," Mikasa continued, "I left the room to put you in your crib. By the time I returned, Jean was gone. We met up again the following day, and he apologized profusely for being so rash the night before. This time, he got down on one knee and took my hand in his, sliding a cheap, but still beautiful, ring onto my finger and asking once more if I would marry him. I stared at him as if he was a complete idiot, which he was, and told him I had already said yes. He got to his feet and rambled stupidly about how he just wanted to do it right this time around. ...I kissed him, then. And that was when I decided I would allow myself to fall in love with him."

Something about the strong sense of conclusion in her voice told Leah that Mikasa was finished, not just pausing again. But Leah's curiosity was still peaked. "...and did you?" she asked.

"...gradually. But… Yes. I _am _in love with Jean Kirschstein. Deeply."

That was all Leah was asking for from the start. A simple, yes or no response. Yet now that she received one, she was still dissatisfied. A voice in her head had told her what the answer would be from the moment the question left her lips, but she reviled that possibility. Mikasa was not in love; she was too strong for that, too smart to throw herself away on such a whimsical emotion. Someone with a heart of stone could not _fall in love… _

She bit her lip, gazing unseeingly at the floor, lost in an entirely different universe. Perhaps Mikasa's heart was not made of _stone, _but rather, ice. Her heart, and with it the ability to feel love and kindness, had frozen over, and Leah's horse-faced Uncle Jean somehow possessed the power to thaw it out.

But Leah was not like that. She _was _stone-hearted. Mikasa was so cold because of a troubled past; Leah had no reason behind her apathy, and so that must have meant it was simply part of who she was. Well, good. That was exactly how she wanted to be. Nothing else suited her better… She would not succumb to any force or feeling that could possibly hinder her performance as a soldier. You can't thaw out a stone…

"I know what you're thinking," Mikasa murmured, just as Leah was returning herself to reality. She cast her aunt an emotionless glance. "You're disappointed in me. You believe I'm throwing away my life, my duties. Betraying my true self. But Leah…" Mikasa took the blonde girl's hands in both of hers, a gentle smile on her face. "I hate to tell you, but, you're wrong. I will never abandon my post in the Scouting Legion; I offered up my heart years ago, and I have no intent to go back on that promise. But that does not mean I can't _live, _and find _happiness. _If anything, I am the most suited to be a parent out of any soldier you could meet, aside from your Uncle Levi. Because, I won't die in battle. I'm much too skilled for that. I can still go out and fight, just like I always have, and do well enough that I will live to come home every day to the people that will make me happiest." She squeezed Leah's hands and gazed meaningfully into her eyes. "You fight best when you have someone to fight for."

Leah felt a sharp pang in her chest, almost as if something on the surface of her heart had cracked. She quickly broke away from Mikasa's stare; if she looked into her eyes for any longer, she might do the unthinkable and start to cry. Taking in a deep, calming breath, she backtracked on her insistence that she could not, and would not, fall in love like a weakling.

There were a few things that Leah was certain of: she was a strong girl that strived to serve the military to the best of her abilities, and she believed that love was a silly, obnoxious emotion. But what she could _not _honestly say, was that she was completely unfeeling. She smiled if she was prompted to, she limitlessly adored her family, she was merciful when need be… She would never go out seeking romance, that she knew; but what if romance found her first? Her immediate thought was that she would turn it away instantaneously, that it would only be a burden to her. After all, Keith Shadis had advised as such. However… Mikasa had a different way of viewing things, as it was now apparent. Whose judgement was she going to follow? Her loud old training instructor, or her trusted non-biological aunt whom she consistently identified with?

"...Aunt Mikasa…" Her lips seemed to move on their own accord. She peeled her eyes off of the wall and looked Mikasa in the face. "...if I think I'm in love with someone, and there is a chance they feel the same way… Should I embrace it? Or should I spare myself the distraction, and them the worry, and not act on it?"

"Embrace it," Mikasa answered without hesitation. She said nothing else; it seemed she had done her share of answering with in-depth responses for the night. Now, it was Leah's turn to be a bit more talkative than usual.

"...they're a complete idiot… The person I," she paused, "_might _love. Of course I can't be sure yet, I've only met them once. There's nothing even attractive about them… I have absolutely no reason to be in love with them."

A teasing smile that was more befitting of Elle's face than Mikasa's appeared on the Asian woman's face. "Jean has the face of a horse and a blunt, cocky personality. Does it seem like I have any reason to love him?"

"...no," Leah murmured with slight reluctance. At this point, there was no sense in denying that the unlikely couple _was _in love. "...there has to be something beneath the surface of this person… Something I don't realize I noticed. Some little quirk, or some other insignificant thing that I _thought _I had looked over, when in actuality it's what makes me love them…" She was almost speaking more to herself than to Mikasa.

"You keep saying 'them' or 'they' when talking about this person," Mikasa pointed out. "Is there a reason?"

Leah tensed. "...they're, a woman."

"Ah."

And that was all Mikasa had to say in response. There was no underlying message behind that "ah..." No disgust, no shock, no disappointment; just a simple comprehensive "ah." Perhaps Leah had been over thinking the issue of potentially loving someone of the same gender… There must have been a reason people no longer concerned themselves with the topic, she realized. A small weight lifted off of her shoulders.

For a moment, Leah considered relaying more insight on Pat Adkins to her aunt. But she decided to save that for another time, if ever again at all, and approached a different subject. "So… When are you going to have the baby?"

"About four or five months," Mikasa answered with a slight tilt to her head. "Jean has his heart set on a son. I personally don't have a preference."

"It's been so long since there was a baby around… Wolfie won't be the smallest anymore." The corner of Leah's mouth turned up faintly.

"I think he'll enjoy being a big cousin," Mikasa decided. Leah nodded her agreement, gazing in the direction of the dining room. It was only down the hall, and yet it felt to be miles away. "We should go back," Mikasa suggested after a moment of gentle silence between them. Leah gave another nod to her head and stood from the step, offering her hand for Mikasa to take. As her aunt got to her own feet, she understood why she was dressed so concealingly: at the right angles, it was subtly, though certainly, obvious that she was expecting.

The table was quiet when they returned, everyone mostly absorbed in their meals. Their eyes looked up expectantly when they noticed Mikasa and Leah had entered the room. "...I'm really sorry, everyone. That was… childish of me. Everything's okay now," Leah insisted quietly. Relief and smiles appeared on the faces of her family members. They forgave her without a worry, and the joyful chatter from the beginning of the gathering resumed.

"So, Aunt Mimi is having a baby-?" Wolfram confirmed at one point. Leah smiled into her glass of water. She exchanged a glance with Mikasa that said, _"Were we not just talking about him 10 minutes ago?"_

"That's right!" Elle answered him with a big smile. "You won't be the baby of the family anymore… Of course, you'll always be _my _baby."

Wolfram's cheeks, still a little chubby from his infancy, flushed a light pink. "...I've never seen a baby before…" he murmured, tilting his head curiously.

"You haven't, have you?" Armin realized with wide eyes, gently ruffling his son's hair.

"_Well, _I'm sure my baby will absolutely love you," Jean insisted from across the table. "Granted, there's a bit of an age gap…"

"It's a smaller gap than there is between me and Lexus, and we've always got along swimmingly," Annette commented optimistically.

"Oh, rumor has it that you two _get along _alright…" Connie teased with a smirk.

Annette's face glowed red, her smile faltering in embarrassment. "What type of rumors are you hearing…?!" she squeaked. Everyone in the room burst into laughter; including Leah.

When she noticed that Jean and Mikasa were holding hands under the table again, and saw them share a quick but loving peck on the lips, the feelings of bitterness she would have formerly felt overbearingly were weak, if not nonexistent. She retired to her bedroom that night with a smile still on her face, and the layer of stone enveloping her heart had begun to crumble.


End file.
